


Terminal Velocity

by AliceInFlannel



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Add tags as I go, Bisexual Dean Winchester, Closeted Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester is Ben Braeden's Parent, Doctor Castiel (Supernatural), Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Inspired by The Walking Dead, M/M, Openly Gay Castiel (Supernatural), Pining Castiel (Supernatural), Pining Dean Winchester, Police Officer Dean Winchester, Post-Apocalypse, Sam Winchester Ships Castiel/Dean Winchester, Slow Burn, Walkers (Walking Dead), Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:14:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29541504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliceInFlannel/pseuds/AliceInFlannel
Summary: Terminal velocity is defined in physics as the steady speed achieved by a freely falling object. An object dropped from rest will speed up until it reaches terminal velocity. If two men fall, how long will it take them to reach the same speed?Cheesy summary I know, but I couldn’t help myself. This is a Walking Dead crossover fic. I’m following the plot points of the show for now, but I may veer off course later if I feel like it. I’m changing and adding some elements to make it fit along with the Supernatural characters. Hope you enjoy it!
Relationships: Castiel & Dean Winchester, Castiel/Dean Winchester, Lisa Braeden/Dean Winchester
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

_Beep beep beep beep_

Dean keeps his eyes closed while he moves his hand around to try and find the annoying alarm clock. He knows he’ll probably be late for work, but he should be allowed to show up late every once in a while. What’s the point of being promoted to detective if he can’t come in late?

_Beep beep beep beep_

“Son of a…” He groans, opening his eyes. He can’t find whatever is causing the beeping noise.

He gasps when he actually takes in his surroundings. He’s not in his bed back home. The walls are plain and white. There’s sunlight streaming in through the window on the far wall. When he turns his head to look outside, he sees an I.V. pole. He must be in a hospital.

It starts coming back to him in bits and pieces. He’d gotten a call that there was a break-in about a mile from where he’d been parked. He wasn’t even supposed to be there. He’d been out getting lunch for the other detectives when the call came in. Since he was the closest officer on the ground, he’d offered to take it. They told him there was one suspect armed with a gun and to proceed with caution. He managed to take down the first suspect, but that’s when another one came out of nowhere. He’d had no warning. There was no time to even try to get out of the way before the bullet hit him and everything went black.

The backup must’ve been able to get him to the hospital in time. He vaguely remembers his partner, Benny, coming to visit him. He remembers Lisa holding Ben’s hand while the kid begged him to wake up. He remembers Sam leaning over him and telling him that they need to leave. He tries to comb back through the fuzzy memories, but that’s all there is.

He looks around the empty room again. It’s silent except for the incessant beeping coming from the heart monitor. He hisses as he rolls over to turn the monitor off. Obviously, he’s still alive. He doesn’t need an annoying alarm to tell him that. Once he’s on his side, he can see a vase filled with dead flowers on his end table. By the flowers is a note.

_Wishing you a speedy recovery_

_-Lawrence P.D._

He reaches out and touches one of the dried-up flowers, and the petals flake off in his hand. These had to have been here for a long time to dry up like this. How long has he been here? Why hasn’t anyone come to check on him?

Dean winces as he pulls out the I.V. still attached to his arm. The bag has long since emptied by the look of it. He tries to stand up, but he immediately collapses onto the floor. His legs feel cramped up and sore almost like he hasn’t used them in ages. Again, he wonders how long he’s been in the hospital. He must’ve been in a coma or something. There’s no way to tell what time it is. The sunlight seems to be coming through the window as if it’s afternoon, but the clock on the wall has stopped so there’s no way for him to tell the exact time. He tries to push himself up with his arms, but he can’t.

“Nurse!” He calls out, and his voice is hoarse from disuse. “Help!” Nobody comes rushing into the room to help him, and Dean starts to get an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something is wrong. Something is very wrong.

He’s able to push himself up to standing on his second try. He wobbles on his feet for a moment before he’s steady enough to take a few shaky steps to the door. He pushes it open to see that there’s a hospital bed pressed up against it from the outside. He crawls over the bed and into the dark hallway. The lights are flickering every once in a while, and the floor is a mess. There are papers and debris littering every inch of the hallway. Wires hang down from the ceiling where parts of the roof are missing. He has to watch his step because there’s broken glass everywhere, and he’s barefoot. All he’s wearing is a pair of boxers and a hospital gown.

He stumbles over towards a sink on the other end of the hallway and is grateful to find that it’s still working. The cold water feels amazing on his dry throat. After he’s done quenching his thirst, he looks around a bit more. The place looks like a scene from a horror movie. There’s broken equipment and blood everywhere. The wall on one side of the hallway is decorated with bullet holes as if someone had come in and shot up the whole place.

At the end of the hallway where the blood is the thickest, there’s a set of double doors with writing on them. He steps closer until he can read it. **DO NOT OPEN!!!** It looks like it was written with black spray paint. The door is chained up and locked with a padlock. What on earth could need this level of protection? He steps a bit closer, and that’s when he hears it. There’s something moving around on the other side of the chained-up doors. It sounds like something shuffling and groaning. Maybe it’s some sort of animal. Dean has no idea why there’d be an animal locked up in the hospital, but the sound is disconcerting enough to have him walking in the opposite direction.

He wanders around the hospital for what feels like hours looking for any sign of someone who can help him. He searches the entire hospital but doesn’t find anyone. For one horrifying second, he wonders if the world ended while he was in that coma, but then he decides that would be ridiculous.

Once he’s given up on finding anybody, he heads towards the side door of the hospital. He opens up the door, and the sunlight is blinding. He stumbles along the side of the building while he waits for his eyes to adjust. When they finally do, his mouth drops open in shock. The entire side parking lot is covered in bodies wrapped in white sheets and lined up into neat little rows. It looks like the kind of mass grave you’d see in an old war movie. He walks slowly through the rows of bodies, his brain spinning to try and piece together what must’ve happened to the world while he was in that coma. The parking lot in front of the hospital is also full, but this one isn’t full of bodies. There are makeshift military tents, an empty helicopter, Humvees, and even a tank. He looks towards the front of the hospital and sees a gaping hole in the side. Did the military bomb the hospital? What the hell is going on?

A slight movement on his left makes him freeze. He turns around and sees a flash of tan fur run and hide behind one of the Humvees. He approaches the vehicle cautiously and smiles when he sees that it’s a dog. Dean isn’t great with dog breeds, but it looks like a golden doodle. The dog whimpers quietly when Dean approaches it. “It’s okay,” he tries his best to make his voice sound comforting. “I’m not going to hurt you.” The dog lets him get close enough to pet him. “How are you alive, little guy?” The dog nuzzles into his hand and licks his palm. “You must be some kind of miracle.” He can’t just leave the dog here, so he whistles for it to follow him. “Come on, Miracle.” The dog follows instantly behind him. He looks pretty skinny. He’s probably had a hard time scavenging for food by himself. He seems eager enough to follow Dean that he doesn’t need to worry about not having a leash for him. It’s not like there’s anyone out here anyways.

Thankfully Dean knows the way back to his house from the hospital. When he gets home, Lisa will be able to explain everything. He just needs to get there. He feels slightly embarrassed walking down the sidewalk in broad daylight wearing nothing but boxers and a flimsy hospital gown, but by the time he makes it to his house he still hasn’t seen a single person. The town is eerily quiet. There aren’t any cars driving on the streets or any sign that businesses are open or have even been open any time recently.

He runs up the steps to his house when he sees that the front door is cracked open. Miracle follows closely behind him. “Lisa? Ben?” He calls as he runs through the empty house. It looks like they left in a hurry. The dresser drawers are all open and clothes are strewn around messily. He checks the closet and sees that their suitcases are gone. He can feel the tears pricking up in his eyes when he runs back into the living room and sees that all of their family pictures have been taken down from the walls. They’re gone. He falls down onto the floor as the tears begin to spill over.

“Is this real?” He mutters to himself. “This can’t be real.” He has to still be in a coma at the hospital. That’s the only thing that makes sense. Whatever drugs they’ve put him on must be causing him to hallucinate. He slaps himself hard to try and wake himself up. When that doesn’t work, he slaps himself again.

Miracle starts whining next to him. “I’m sorry.” He stops hitting himself. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” Dean pats the dog gently on the head before standing up and stumbling back towards the front door. He sits down on the steps to try and catch his breath. He knows Lisa and Ben are alive, or at least they were alive when they left the house. It’d be easy to assume a random person came in and looted their house if not for the pictures. A random person wouldn’t steal pictures of some family they don’t know. Lisa had to be the one who took them.

Dean looks down the street and sees a figure walking slowly towards him. It’s the first person he’s seen all day. The first sign of life aside from Miracle. Maybe he’s not alone after all. He raises his hand to wave the person over, but before he can call out, he’s hit in the head from behind by something hard. He collapses onto the ground, his head spinning violently. He’s just on the edge of passing out, but he clings to consciousness as tightly as he can. He hears a gunshot and then the sound of a body hitting the pavement.

He opens his eyes again and sees a woman holding a baseball bat above her head menacingly. She must’ve been the person who hit him. “I got him, babe!” She shouts excitedly.

“Lisa?” Dean groans. “I found you.” He hears footsteps quickly approach them from the street, and the next second there’s a gun pointed at his head. The man holding it is tall and lanky, but his gaze is hard. He means business.

“Did he say something?” The man asks his companion. “I thought I heard him say something.”

“He called me Lisa,” she replies. Dean blinks through the blinding pain in his head, and now he can see that this woman isn’t Lisa. She has sandy blonde hair and is a lot shorter than the man.

“Becky, you know they can’t talk,” the thin man says. “Hey, stranger, what’s that bandage for?” Dean just groans again. His head really hurts. The man shakes the gun in his face. “Answer me or I’ll shoot you.” Dean tries to make his mouth work, but before he can say anything, he passes out.

When he comes to, he can tell that he’s lying on his back on a bed. His hands have been tied above his head to the bed posts, and his feet are also bound. The blonde woman is still clutching her bat and is watching him closely. The man is making sure the blinds over the windows are closed up. There are a few candles lit around the room, but that’s the only light he can see by. It must be night time.

“You’re awake,” the man says as if Dean didn’t already know that. “I changed out your bandage. The old one was pretty nasty.” He pours some water into a cup and helps Dean take a few sips. “What happened to you?”

“Gun shot,” Dean is finally able to answer.

“Anything else?” The man prods.

Dean scoffs, “A gunshot isn’t enough?”

The man’s face hardens a bit, and he leans in closer. “Did you get bitten?”

“What? Bitten?” Now Dean is really confused.

“Bitten, scratched, chewed, anything like that?” Becky asks.

“No,” Dean says quickly. “I just got shot.” He’s not sure what they’re playing at, but he feels a bit uncomfortable being tied up to this bed while they hold weapons threateningly in front of him.

The man reaches out towards his face, and he flinches automatically. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you,” the man says. Dean lets him reach forward again, and he puts his hand on his forehead. He must be checking if he has a fever. “You’re okay. If you’d been bitten the fever would’ve killed you by now.” Dean looks over at the woman as she lowers her bat. The man quickly unties Dean’s hands and feet. They must’ve decided he’s not a threat to them.

“I’m sorry about that,” the man says sheepishly. “We can’t be too careful. I’m Garth. This is my girlfriend, Becky.”

“Dean,” he responds, rubbing his sore wrists to get some circulation back into them. He doesn’t know how long he was tied up like that, but it had to have been a few hours at least. When he stands up, Becky hands him a robe to put on. The two of them leave the room without saying anything else, so Dean follows them.

When they get downstairs, Garth and Becky start pulling out dishes to serve dinner. He’s not sure what they’re making, but it looks like some sort of stew. Miracle runs over to him, wagging his tail enthusiastically, and Dean gives him a few pets. He looks around the house more carefully now that he’s in the main room, and suddenly he recognizes where they are.

“This is Sid and Bridget’s house,” Dean says. Sid worked with him at the police station. Why are Garth and Becky squatting in his neighbor’s house?

“There was nobody here when we got here,” Garth says as if he can read his mind.

Dean nods, wondering if his neighbors took off like Lisa and Ben seemed to. He hobbles over towards the front windows. They’re covered up with thick blankets. He wants to peek outside to see what time it is. It’s hard to tell with the windows covered up like this. As he reaches his hand out to move the blanket out of the way, Becky speaks up.

“Don’t do that. They’ll see the light,” she says quickly as if that would mean something to him.

“There are more of them outside than usual,” Garth explains. “I shouldn’t have shot my gun earlier. They’re attracted by the noise.” He pours stew into four bowls: saving one for himself, handing one to Becky, one to Dean, and putting the last one on the ground for Miracle. The dog starts eating immediately, and Dean smiles, grateful for the gesture of kindness from these strangers. “It was stupid using my gun, but it all happened so fast.”

“You shot that man today…” Dean tries his best to stay delicate. He’s sure Garth had a good reason, because he doesn’t look like the kind of person who would just go around shooting people for nothing, but Dean still needs to be cautious. He doesn’t know these people. They seem friendly enough, but he’s not going to let his guard down.

“That wasn’t a man,” Becky says quietly.

Dean’s face hardens. “He shot a man in the street today. I saw it.”

“You need glasses,” Garth chuckles. “That wasn’t a man. It was a walker.” Dean takes a bite of stew while he tries to figure out what the fuck they’re talking about.

“Do you even know what’s going on here?” Becky asks.

Dean shakes his head. “I woke up today in the hospital. I remember getting shot on the job, but I don’t know how long I was in the hospital before waking up. I came home, and that’s all I know.”

“But you know about the dead people, right?” Garth asks.

Dean shivers unconsciously. “Yeah, I saw a lot of that. There were a bunch of bodies outside of the hospital.”

“No, not the ones they killed,” Becky says. “The ones they didn’t. The walkers.”

“Like the one I shot today,” Garth says. “If I hadn’t, it would’ve ripped into you or tried to eat you.” Dean’s eyes squint up in confusion. Clearly these people are insane. He’s trying to think of a polite way to leave when Garth speaks up again. “If you just woke up today, I know how this must all sound, but it’s the truth. The dead walk among us now.”

“You mean like full-on zombie action?” Dean asks incredulously.

“Yeah, they’re out on the street right now,” Becky says. “They’re more active at night for some reason.” Dean looks over towards the covered-up windows nervously.

“Don’t worry,” Garth smiles. “We’ll be fine inside here if we’re quiet. They’ll probably be gone by the morning.”

Miracle whines quietly, and Dean looks down at him. His bowl is empty. He must want some more food. Before he’s able to spoon some out of his own bowl, Garth leans over and pours the rest of his stew into Miracle’s bowl. The dog starts eating again immediately.

“This your dog?” Garth asks with a chuckle.

“I found him outside of the hospital,” Dean explains. “I couldn’t leave him out there.”

“That’s good,” Becky says around a mouthful of stew. “He’ll probably be able to warn you if any walkers get too close. Whatever you do, don’t let them bite you. A bite will kill you. It causes a fever that burns right through you in a matter of days, but then after a while… you come back.”

“What does that mean?” Dean asks.

“They’re undead,” Garth explains. “But they’re not people anymore. All of their memories and personalities are erased. All that’s left is base instinct and hunger.” Dean shudders as he looks towards the covered windows again. They finish up the rest of their stew in silence.

After they’re finished eating, they head out to the living room where some old mattresses have been set up. Becky falls asleep almost instantly, but Garth is still sitting awake on the bed next to her. Miracle is curled up at the foot of the mattress Dean is sitting on. He wants to go to sleep, but he’s afraid of what he might see when he closes his eyes. Then again, it can’t be any worse than what he’s been seeing since waking up.

“Is Lisa your wife?” Garth asks quietly.

“What?”

“When Becky hit you with the baseball bat earlier, you called her Lisa,” Garth explains. “Is she your wife?”

“Girlfriend,” Dean corrects. “It’s kind of complicated. We went out for a while years ago, but it didn’t work out. Then I just found out recently that she had a kid, and he’s mine. We’re trying to work things out now for Ben’s sake.” He’s only had Ben in his life for about a year, but he can’t imagine his life without him. He needs to find them.

“You think he’s with her?” Garth asks.

Dean sighs. “I hope so.” Garth is about to say something in response when a car horn starts blaring from outside. Becky wakes up in a panic.

“Shh,” Garth holds her. “One of them probably just bumped into a car.” Dean gets up and walks over towards the window. Becky blows out the few remaining candles they’ve kept lit, and Garth moves to join Dean by the window. Garth peels back the blanket covering it and looks outside. “It’s the red car down the street,” he says, stepping back so Dean can get a look.

Dean gasps when he sees people stumbling aimlessly around the street. There have to be at least ten of them. They all look dazed and dirty. Walkers, Garth had called them. Now that he’s seeing it with his own eyes, Dean believes him.

“Won’t the sound bring more of them?” Dean asks as the car horn continues to blare loudly.

“We can’t do anything about that now. We just have to wait them out,” Becky says, getting back into bed. Garth and Dean follow her.

Dean closes his eyes as he tries his best not to freak out. All he can do right now is hope that Sam, Lisa, and Ben are together and safe somewhere. He falls into a restless sleep and is woken up in the morning by Becky. After a meager breakfast, they decide it should have cleared up enough outside for them to head out.

“We’re sure they’re dead?” Dean asks when the three of them leave the house. There’s a walker sitting at the edge of the sidewalk. “I have to ask one more time.”

“They’re dead,” Becky whispers. “It’s just something in the brain that keeps them from fully dying. That’s why you have to get them in the head to put them down.” She hands Dean a golf club that they found in Sid’s house so he has a weapon to use.

The three of them quietly approach the walker. When they get about ten feet away, it stands up suddenly with a groan and lunges towards them. Miracle growls menacingly, but Dean shushes him. He swings his golf club, hitting the walker on the chest so it falls over. Once it’s on the ground, the three of them pummel it with their weapons until its head is broken, and it’s definitely dead. Dean collapses onto his knees with a pained groan. His bullet wound hasn’t fully healed, and his side aches.

“Are you alright?” Garth asks.

“Fine,” Dean says through gritted teeth. “Just give me a minute.”

After he’s recovered, they head next door back to his house to grab him some actual clothes to wear. He manages to find a pair of jeans and a plain white undershirt upstairs. Most of his clothes are gone. He wonders if Lisa took them just in case he turned up later. He hopes that’s why at least. He hopes they haven’t given up on him.

He gets back down to the kitchen where Garth and Becky are digging through the cabinets. “They’re alive,” Dean says confidently. “At least they were when they left. Lisa took family pictures with her. A random looter wouldn’t have done that.”

“That’s good!” Garth surprises him by running forward to give him a hug. Dean grimaces when Garth squeezes him too tightly over his wound, and Becky gives him a sympathetic smile.

“I should’ve warned you he’s a hugger,” she says with a laugh.

Garth lets him go. “Your girlfriend and son are probably in Kansas City,” he says. “Before the radio broadcasts stopped, they were urging people to head that way. There’s a refugee center with military protection, food, and shelter.”

“The CDC also said they’re working on a cure to solve this thing,” Becky says as she packs canned goods into a bag.

After they finish salvaging anything useful from Dean’s house, he takes them to the police department where he worked. They should be able to find some guns and ammunition there. If he’s lucky, he’ll be able to take his car down the road to Kansas City and start looking for this refugee center they told him about.

Dean shows the two of them to the locker room where they can get washed up. The showers are still working. He grabs an extra uniform from his locker and changes into that. It might be good to look like a cop in case he runs into any trouble down the road. He breaks into the storage room and grabs a few guns and ammo for himself. When Becky and Garth get back from their showers, he makes sure they’re similarly armed.

“Kansas City sounds like a good deal,” Dean says while he loads up a shotgun.

“That’s where we were heading before everything started getting crazy,” Becky says. “You wouldn’t believe the panic there was. The streets were blocked up and so crowded you couldn’t drive on them.”

“We decided to stay here for a bit while we wait for things to settle down,” Garth says.

“What about now?” Dean asks. “Do you want to come with me to Kansas City?”

Garth and Becky exchange nervous glances. “I don’t think we’re ready to leave just yet,” Garth says sheepishly. “I have some family in nearby towns, and we were hoping to be able to meet up with them first.”

Dean nods, opening up the trunk of his police car. “Here.” He hands Garth one of their department issued walkie-talkies. “Take this then. There’s a fresh battery in it. I’ll turn mine on for a few minutes every morning to let you know where I am. When you get to Kansas City, that’s how you’ll find me.”

Garth lunges forward and gives him another hug. “Thanks, man.” Dean pats him on the back and waves towards Becky who is already packing up their car. “Oh, Dean. One last thing. The walkers might not seem too bad one at a time, but they’re nasty when they’re in a group, all riled up and hungry. Be careful out there!”

“You too,” Dean says, giving Garth one final hug before he jogs over to join Becky. He has to admit the lanky man has grown on him. He hopes he’ll see them again someday. The two of them pull out of the parking lot, and he looks down at Miracle. “Come on, boy. Let’s go!” He motions for Miracle to hop in the backseat of the police car, and then he gets into the front. The drive to Kansas City from here shouldn’t take more than an hour or two if the roads are clear.

After he’s been on the road for a while, he figures he should try reaching out to anyone on the emergency frequencies that cops use. Maybe he’ll be able to get in touch with someone from his department or anyone nearby who has a radio.

“This is Detective Dean Winchester broadcasting on emergency frequencies to let you know I’m traveling along Interstate 70 on the way to Kansas City. If anybody hears me, please respond.” He takes thirty second breaks in between each time he repeats the message to give someone the chance to respond. All he can do now is hope that somebody hears him.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

The static from the police car radio makes everyone immediately drop what they’re doing. Jo is the closest to the radio, so she drops the firewood she was carrying and runs towards it. Bobby is close behind her.

“Hello?” She asks.

“Can anyone hear me?” A man asks from the other end.

“Yes, I can hear you!”

“I’m broadcasting on emergency frequencies, traveling along Interstate 70 on the way to Kansas City. If anybody hears me, please respond.” The feed seems to be coming through well enough on their end, but whoever is calling them hasn’t reacted to Jo’s voice at all.

“We’re right outside of Kansas City,” Jo yells into the radio. “Hello? Hello?!” All she hears now is static. She fiddles with the various knobs a bit, but it’s too late. Whoever was calling must be out of range. She looks up at Bobby helplessly. “He’s gone. I couldn’t warn him.”

“Try to call him again,” Bobby instructs. He looks over his shoulder and sees Sam and Benny slowly walking towards them from where they’d been chopping up wood. “Come here, Benny. You know how to work this thing the best.”

Benny grabs the radio, adjusting the left knob slightly and opening the call again. “Hello? Is the person who called still there?” Sam hears nothing but static. “This is Detective Benny Lafitte broadcasting to person unknown, please respond.” Sam sees Lisa and Ben approach him quietly from the side. He ruffles Ben’s hair fondly. Most of the camp is waiting with baited breath to see if the person talks again. “Dammit,” Benny sighs, turning off the radio. “He’s gone.”

“At least we know there are others,” Lisa says quietly. “We’re not the only people left.”

“I figured there would be,” Benny stands up. “That’s why we left the radio on.”

“A lot of good it’s done,” Lisa holds her ground. Sam has gotten to know her pretty well over the last few months. She’s strong, and she doesn’t put up with any bullshit. He knows she must’ve put Dean in his place a few times. His chest aches when he thinks about his brother. Benny sighs, but he doesn’t respond. He’s probably learned by now that it’s not the best idea.

Sam doesn’t know for sure, but it seems like Benny and Lisa have developed a relationship that might be a bit more than strictly platonic. When he first saw them spending a bunch of time together, he got angry. Lisa was Dean’s girlfriend and the mother of his child, and Benny was his work partner. It felt wrong that the two of them would develop something. Now, he’s not so sure. They all miss Dean. Maybe this is their way of dealing with their grief. Who is Sam to try and deny anyone of a bit of emotional comfort during these awful times?

Lisa continues, “I’ve been saying for a week that I think we should put signs up on the interstate to warn people away from going to Kansas City.”

Jo nods in agreement. “People have no idea what they’re heading into.”

“We haven’t had time,” Benny says in a tone that leaves no room for argument. Benny has stepped up as the fearless leader of their merry band of survivalists since he’s the one with the law enforcement background and the one who is the most prepared out of all of them for this type of situation. He listens to the concerns of the rest of the group, but he’s not afraid to put his foot down when he has to.

“I think we need to make time, Benny,” Lisa says quietly. Sam looks in between the too of them, and he can see the pain on Benny’s face. He knows Lisa is probably hoping that one day Dean will come marching into this camp with that cocky grin on his face and a beer in his hand, but it’s not going to happen. Dean was shot. He was in a coma for months, and when the hospital was attacked, every patient inside was killed. Those are the facts.

“That’s a luxury we can’t afford right now,” Benny says, his voice cracking slightly.

Sam figures he needs to step in before this starts to escalate further. “I think Benny is right, Lisa. We’re trying to survive day-to-day. Who would even go on this mission?”

“I will,” Lisa says angrily. “Just give me a car.”

“Nobody goes anywhere alone,” Benny insists. “You know that.”

“Yes, sir,” Lisa says sarcastically before storming away. Benny follows quickly behind her, calling out her name. Ben looks like he’s about to cry when he starts to chase after them, but Sam jogs to catch up to the kid. He doesn’t need to be around anymore fighting right now.

“Hey, Ben,” he says. Ben turns around to look at him, wiping tears out of his eyes before they can fall. He’s so much like Dean it still takes Sam by surprise sometimes. “It’s okay. Why don’t you go sit by the fire? Your mom just needs a chance to cool down.” Ben nods, and walks back to the center of camp. Sam isn’t trying to eavesdrop, but he’s close enough to Lisa’s tent that he can hear the heated discussion happening inside of it.

“Why are you pissed at me?” Benny asks loudly. “I told you I am not putting you in danger. I’m not going to lose you too, so if you need to take a swing at me or something, you do what you gotta do.”

“Benny—”

“No, you cannot walk off like that,” Benny continues. “If you don’t want to do it for my sake or for your own, I get that, but do it for Ben. He’s only nine, and he’s been through more than most adults have. He’s not going to lose his mother too.”

The tent is quiet for a moment, and Sam wonders if he should leave before they notice him standing out here listening.

“I’m a good mother,” Lisa says quietly.

“I know you are, baby,” Benny replies quietly. “Come here.”

Well, that answers that question. Sam grimaces at the sound of kissing coming from the tent and quickly walks back towards the fire pit. He sits down next to Ben who is staring quietly at the flames.

“Ben, your mom isn’t going anywhere,” Sam says to try and reassure him.

Ben sighs. “I miss Dean.” He says it so quietly that Sam almost doesn’t hear him. It’s like he’s telling a secret and didn’t want anyone else to overhear.

“I miss him too, kiddo,” Sam whispers back.

“Do you think… Is there a chance that he’s alright?” Ben asks, his voice cracking slightly. Sam doesn’t have to look over at him to tell that he’s started crying again.

He knows he shouldn’t lie to the kid or foster false hope in him, but he doesn’t have the heart to tell him the truth about this. “Anything is possible,” he says instead. He gives Ben a quick pat on the head and goes back to his post to keep watch. As much as he wants to believe his own words, he knows he can’t. Dean isn’t ever coming back, and that’s something they’re all going to have to come to terms with. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope two chapters back to back will be enough to hook you haha  
> I'm gonna try to update every other week from now on, but we'll see how that goes

The car runs out of gas only three miles away from the edge of Kansas City. Dean had been pushing it to the limit to try and get there before he ran out, but he couldn’t make it. He pulls out a picture of him with Lisa and Ben from his dashboard and sticks it in his pocket. Then he gets all of the provisions and guns he’d collected from the police station and puts them into a duffel bag.

He doesn’t even need to whistle at Miracle to get the dog to follow him. It’s only been a day, but Miracle is following him like a shadow. That’s good news because like Becky said, it could come in handy having a dog to give him a heads up about possible walkers.

He sees a dirt road leading to what looks like an old farmhouse. Maybe there will be somebody there who can help him out. Or maybe he’ll be able to find some gas there so he can get the rest of the way to Kansas City. When Dean gets to the house, Miracle starts sniffing around the outside of it. He whines in front of one of the windows, so Dean runs over to check it out. When he looks inside, he sees an older man in overalls with a shotgun in his mouth. From the number of bugs on him, it looks like he’s been dead for a while. The man probably thought killing himself was a better option than trying to face the end of the world on his own.

Dean gives Miracle a comforting pat and continues to look around. There’s an old truck on the side of the property, but it doesn’t have the keys in it. Dean doesn’t have any way to try and siphon gas out of the vehicle, and even if he did, he doesn’t have any container to transport the gas back to his car.

He’s almost resigned to walking the rest of the way to Kansas City when he hears a whinny behind him. He turns around and sees a horse looking towards him from a pasture on the edge of the property. It’s been years since he’s ridden a horse, but that would definitely be faster than having to walk there. He goes over towards the barn and is grateful that it appears to be unlocked. He saddles up the horse without too much trouble, but then he has to figure out what to do about Miracle. Dean doesn’t want to force him to run along behind them because that would tire him out, but he’s not sure if Miracle is going to like being forced to ride on the horse.

“Sorry, boy,” Dean says, and Miracle tilts his head at the sound of his voice. “You’re probably not going to like this, but it’s the only way.” He grabs some extra ropes lying around and manages to strap Miracle onto the back of the horse. Dean gets up afterwards behind Miracle so he can hold onto him and comfort him. “It shouldn’t be too long of a ride,” he says.

Dean taps the horse gently with his feet, and they’re off. It doesn’t take too much time before he can start to see the buildings on the horizon. The closer they get to the city, the more eerily quiet it is. They’re trotting along the interstate highway, and there are absolutely no cars or signs of life on this side of the freeway. The side coming from Kansas City is littered with a pile-up of cars. Garth and Becky had said things were crazy at the beginning. Maybe there was a mad dash of people trying to leave the city. Dean hopes whoever was panicking here survived, but by the looks of the burnt-out vehicles, they probably didn’t.

When they get into the city it’s just as eerily quiet as it was on the outside. Lots of the buildings have broken or boarded up windows, more empty cars are parked along the streets, and newspapers and other debris drift along the ground with the breeze. They walk past an old bus, and Miracle whines when a couple walkers start waking up inside. The horse must hear them too because it snorts and tries to turn around.

“It’s okay, guys,” Dean says, urging the horse to keep moving forward. “We can outrun a couple of them if it comes to that.” He shudders when they walk past an empty tank on the street. He never thought he’d see a military presence in a major city like this, but then again, it is the end of the world.

After a few more minutes of walking down the silent street, Dean hears something off in the distance. He might be crazy, but it sounds like the steady beat of helicopter blades. He looks around through the skyscrapers towards the sky, but he doesn’t see anything. The sound continues to grow louder, and he knows that it’s definitely a helicopter. If there’s a helicopter flying around, that means there’s still some functioning form of government whether that’s military, law enforcement, or something else. He urges the horse to start galloping towards the direction of the noise. If he can follow it, then maybe it’ll lead him towards the refugee center.

When he turns the corner onto another street, he sees the last thing he’d ever expected to see. The horse rears up on its two hind legs to try and stop itself from barreling into the tens of dozens of walkers crowded onto this street. Dean quickly pulls on the reins to turn the horse around. They’ll be able to outrun the walkers if they move fast, but once he turns around, he realizes that isn’t a possibility. There are more walkers crowding in on them from this side.

“Shit,” he hisses under his breath as Miracle squirms in the ropes where Dean strapped him to the saddle. The horse snorts nervously, but Dean urges it to move forward. They have to try to make it back to the tank. If they can get back there, Dean knows he can hide inside. He’d noticed when they first passed it that the roof was open. The walkers chasing them start grabbing onto the horse and trying to pull them down, but Dean keeps urging them forward. They’re almost there. He feels a pang of sympathy when he realizes the horse is definitely a goner. The walkers outnumber them, and their combined strength is pulling the horse down to the ground.

Dean knows he needs to act quickly or he’s dead. He pulls out his switchblade and cuts the ropes to free Miracle. Then he jumps off of the dying horse, trying his best to avoid the walkers grabbing at him. One of them rips the duffel bag off his arm, but he climbs quickly to the top of the tank and whistles for Miracle to join him. Thankfully, Miracle springs up to the top of the tank before any walkers can grab him, and Dean pulls him safely inside the tank and closes the lid on top. He pulls Miracle close to him as the dog whimpers. They’re safe in here for now, but Dean can hear the walkers banging on the outside of the tank and fighting over the horse. There’s no way out of here. He’s completely surrounded.

He lets his head fall against the side of the tank with a metallic thud as he tries to think. If he can’t get out of here alive, then he’s going to have to take care of it himself. He’s not going to let himself become one of those things. He thinks about Sammy, Benny, Lisa, and Ben. He hopes they’re okay wherever they are. He takes a few deep breaths to build up enough nerve, and then he puts his pistol in his mouth.

Before he’s able to convince himself to pull the trigger, he hears static coming from the radio inside of the tank. “Hey, you,” a voice comes through the static, and Dean looks up with lightning speed. “Hey, dumbass in the tank. Is it cozy in there?” Dean bangs his head on the roof of the tank as he tries to move towards the other side where the radio is. “Are you alive in there?” The voice asks.

He grabs the radio transmitter. “Hello? Hello?” He asks frantically.

“There you are!” The voice sounds relieved. Dean can tell now that it’s a man, probably young from the sound of his voice. “I thought you’d croaked, dude.”

“Where are you?” Dean asks. “Can you see me right now?”

“Yeah, I can see you. You’re completely surrounded. That’s the bad news.”

Dean’s hands shake while he holds onto the radio. “Is there any good news?”

There’s a short pause on the other end. “No.”

“Listen,” Dean says, his voice shaking as much as his hands. He’s drenched in sweat from his mad dash back to the tank and his close-call with death, not to mention it’s a million degrees inside of here. “I’m man enough to tell you that I’m freaking the fuck out over here.”

The voice groans. “You’d be more freaked out if you could see what I’m seeing. There are a ton of them.”

Dean wipes sweat from his brow. “Do you have any advice for me?”

“I’d say make a run for it,” the voice replies.

Dean’s jaw drops. Is this guy serious? “You’re joking.”

“It’s not as crazy as it sounds,” the voice explains. “I have eyes on you right now, and I can see there’s only one walker still on the tank. The rest are distracted by the feeding frenzy where your horse went down. Understand me so far?”

“Yes.”

“The street on the other side of the tank isn’t as crowded,” the voice continues. “If you move now while they’re distracted, there’s a chance you can make it. Do you have any guns or ammo?”

“There’s both in the duffel bag I dropped outside,” Dean says. “Can I get to it?”

“Not a chance,” the voice says firmly. “Don’t even think about it! What do you have on you?”

Dean sighs and pulls the clip out of the pistol he’s holding in his hand. The clip is fully loaded, but that means he only has fifteen bullets. He moves over to the other side of the tank and sees a grenade lying on the ground. He grabs it and puts it in his pocket. “I have a gun with a full clip, one grenade, and a dog.”

“A dog?” The voice asks incredulously. “Whatever, man. Jump out of the right side of the tank. There’s an alleyway about fifty yards from where you are. Meet me there.”

“What’s your name?” Dean asks.

“Dude, did you not listen to a word I said?” The voice says in a panic. “The horse is almost gone. You need to run, NOW!”

Dean drops the radio and turns to Miracle. “Hey, boy,” he says trying to keep his voice calm. The dog is shaking nervously. “We need to make a run for it. Follow me!”

He grabs a piece of metal that must’ve broken off from the inside of the tank and quickly lifts the top lid open. When he pokes his head out, the walker on top of the tank lunges at him. He smacks it hard on the side of the face with the metal bar and then jumps down off of the tank. Pain shoots through his ankle at the awkward landing, but he can’t stop moving now.

“This way, Miracle,” Dean yells, running in the direction that the voice had told him to go. There are fewer walkers this way, but he still has to take some of them down with shots to the head. He’s always been good with firearms, and all of that time spent practicing is paying off now in a major way. He looks behind him quickly to make sure Miracle is following him, and then he keeps running.

He runs right past the alley, but stops when he hears the voice yell, “In here!” He turns back and sees an Asian teenager wearing a green baseball cap and a hoodie. “Come on!” The kid yells. Dean runs into the alley where the teenager is hiding, and Miracle follows right behind him. They let the gate swing closed and take off running down the alley as fast as they can. There are three walkers who managed to sneak in through the gate before it closed, and they chase closely behind. Dean turns around and shoots one of them, but now he’s out of bullets.

“Come on! Faster!” The kid yells. When they get further down the alley, the kid pulls out a walkie-talkie. That must’ve been what he’d used to contact Dean in the tank. He pulls Dean into an alcove, and Dean picks up Miracle to make sure they can all fit. The two walkers run right past where they’re hiding. Luckily for them, the walkers don’t seem to be very smart.

After they take a moment to catch their breaths, the teenager turns to glare at him. “Nice moves, Chuck Norris,” he says sarcastically. “Are you the new deputy? Come to try and clean up the big city?”

“I didn’t know there would be so many of them,” Dean pants.

“Yippee-ki-yay or whatever,” the kid says angrily. “You’re still a dumbass.”

He holds his hand out. “I’m Dean. Thanks for your help.”

The boy shakes his hand. “Kevin, and you’re welcome. We’re not out of the woods yet though. There are still a few walkers in between here and where the rest of my group is.” He turns on the walkie-talkie and switches it to the correct frequency. “I’m on my way back, and I’m bringing a guest. There are two walkers in the alley.” Kevin turns the walkie-talkie off again and faces Dean. “Come on.”

“Why did you risk your life for me?” Dean has to ask.

“I might be a bigger moron than you, but I guess my hope is that if one day I’m in that bad of a situation, someone will do the same for me,” Kevin shoots him a small smile. “Okay, we gotta move.” He starts running further down the alley, and Dean follows him. They get to what appears to be a dead end and see the two walkers who had run past them earlier. The alley backs up onto a building with a door that opens up to reveal two women holding baseball bats. The two newcomers attack the walkers while Kevin, Dean, and Miracle run inside the building. After the walkers are dead, the two women with the baseball bats join them inside.

Before Dean has a chance to even look around the room, he’s being pushed up against the wall by a woman holding a gun. “Son of a bitch,” the woman says, pushing the gun under his chin. “We should kill you.”

“Chill out, Meg,” the older of the women who’d killed the walkers outside speaks up.

“Are you kidding me?” The brunette named Meg screeches. “We’re all dead because of this jackass.”

“I said cool it.” The older woman’s voice is firm. Clearly, she’s the one in charge here.

Meg slowly lowers the gun, but the expression on her face is still furious. She backs away from Dean a couple of steps. “We’re dead,” she says quietly, seeming resigned. “We’re all dead because of you.”

Dean looks around at the other people in the room. Kevin is looking down at his feet. The older woman has a tough, no-nonsense expression on her face. There’s an older black man standing in the background who hasn’t said anything yet, a younger blonde woman who is standing next to him with tears in her eyes, and then Meg who is still fuming.

Dean has no idea what’s happening, so he says as much. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The older man grabs him by the arm and drags him through the hallway and out into an open room. Now it’s clear they’re in what used to be some sort of clothing store. There are mannequins and racks of clothes scattered around the room. “We were on a scavenging mission. Do you know what the key to a successful scavenging mission is?” The man asks him angrily. Dean shrugs. “Surviving! And what’s the key to surviving?” Dean doesn’t bother trying to answer this time because he knows the man is going to keep talking anyways. “Sneaking in and out without making noise, not shooting up the entire street like you’re in a Clint Eastwood movie.”

“Every walker within one mile must’ve heard you firing off shots,” Meg says angrily. “Look!” She points towards the front of the store where two layers of glass doors are all that stand between them and an army of dead people. The doors are locked up, but the walkers are banging on them. It’s only a matter of time before they’ll be able to break through. They need to find a way out of here!

“Oh God,” the younger blonde whines, backing away from the doors. The rest of them fall back to join her.

“What the hell were you doing out there anyways?” The older woman asks.

“I was chasing the helicopter,” Dean says, realizing how stupid it sounds now.

“Helicopter?” The man asks incredulously. “There ain’t no damn helicopters around here.”

“I heard it!” Dean says forcefully. He might not know the rules of this new world they’re living in, but he sure as hell knows what a helicopter sounds like.

“Hey, Rufus,” the older woman says. “Do you think you can use the walkie to try contacting the others?” Dean looks towards the older man, Rufus apparently, as he pulls out the walkie-talkie Kevin must’ve used to talk to him earlier.

“Others?” Dean asks. “You mean the refugee center?” Maybe these guys know where it is.

Meg snorts. “Yeah, the refugee center. They’re setting up donuts and coffee for us as we speak.”

“Can’t get a signal down here, but maybe from the roof,” Rufus responds.

Before anybody else can say anything, they hear a gunshot. It sounds like some sort of rifle, and Dean would bet money it’s close by given how loud the shot was.

The older woman groans, “Shit, was that Novak?”

“What is that psychopath doing?” Rufus hisses.

“Let’s go,” Kevin says, heading for the staircase. The rest of them follow quickly behind. Dean has to whistle twice for Miracle to follow him. The dog had been so focused on the walkers outside the door, that he hadn’t noticed the rest of them leave. They run up a back staircase. It looks like they’re inside some sort of multi-level mall or department store. Most of the group is panting by the time they get to the fourth floor. The entire time they’re running up the stairs they can hear more shots ringing off.

“Novak, are you crazy?” Rufus yells once they get onto the roof. Dean looks over at the man leaning over the edge of the roof. He’s using a sniper rifle to pick off lone walkers walking on the street. Novak looks to be about forty. He’s pretty buff, and he has blond hair and blue eyes. He jumps down from the edge of the roof, but he just laughs when he sees the rest of the groups’ worried expressions. Obviously this man isn’t taking the dangerousness of their situation seriously.

“You should be more polite to a man holding a gun,” Novak says, pointing it towards Rufus. “That’s just common sense.”

“You stupid motherfucker!” Meg shouts, running towards him. “You’re wasting bullets and bringing even more of them down on us!”

“I don’t care if it’s the end of the world,” Novak says slowly. “I don’t let sluts talk to me like that.”

“Woah, just chill, man,” Kevin says, raising his hands up in a gesture of peace. Neither of them listens to him.

“What did you just call me?” Meg asks, her voice rising an octave.

Novak steps forward until he’s right up in Meg’s face. “I said you’re a whore.” He speaks each syllable slowly as if Meg is too stupid to understand him. “Not that I mind. What do you say we go find a quiet place and have some fun before our time runs out? We’re all going to die anyway.”

Meg brings her knee up quickly into Novak’s groin, causing him to double over in pain. “You’ll pay for that, bitch!” He raises his hand up to hit the brunette, and Dean realizes he has to act quickly. Before fully thinking through his actions, his inner-detective takes over. In a matter of seconds Dean pulls handcuffs out, pins Novak to the ground, clasps a handcuff on his left wrist, and locks the other one around a metal pipe connected to the roof.

He hears the young blonde girl crying softly in the background, and he hopes that it’s because of the awful things Novak was saying and not because of Dean’s show of force. It wasn’t his intention to scare anybody.

“Listen up, Novak,” Dean starts and then realizes he doesn’t know the guy’s first name. “What’s your first name?” The man just glares at him.

“Lucifer,” Meg spits out.

“Well, that’s fitting,” Dean smirks. “Listen up, Lucifer. There aren’t any more sluts. There aren’t any more over-compensating, misogynistic dicks either. There’s just us and them, the living and the dead. We survive this by working _together_ , not fighting amongst ourselves.”

Lucifer spits at him, but Dean is able to dodge it by pulling back out of the way. “Screw you, cowboy.”

Dean pulls out his pistol and holds it up to Lucifer’s head. The rest of the crew gasps. “You should be more polite to a man holding a gun,” Dean repeats Novak’s earlier words, and the man’s eyes narrow. “Just common sense.”

“You wouldn’t shoot me,” Lucifer scoffs, but Dean can tell from his eyes that he’s a little bit nervous. “You’re a cop.”

“I’m not anymore,” Dean says. “All I am now is a man looking for his family. Anybody who stops me from doing that is going to end up dead. Do I make myself clear?” Lucifer rolls his eyes. Dean grabs his hair and wrenches it back, shoving the gun into his ear and cocking it. He has no intention of shooting the dick, but he needs him to know that he means business. Dean can already tell this guy is a loose cannon, and if they want to have any hope of making it out of here, they need to take care of this situation quickly.

“What are you going to do?” Lucifer laughs. “Arrest me?”

Dean sighs. Apparently, there won’t be any getting through to him. “It seems like I already have,” he replies, pointing towards the handcuffs. He stands up and walks over towards the edge of the roof to calm down. After a few moments, he hears footsteps heading towards him. He looks up to see who joined him. It’s the older woman.

“You’re not Kansas City, P.D.” She doesn’t phrase it as a question. “Where are you from?”

“Lawrence,” Dean responds.

“Well, Sonny Crockett, from Lawrence,” she laughs. “I’m Ellen. Welcome to the big city.” The two of them look down at the street that’s still swarming with the undead. He has no idea how they’re going to get themselves out of this mess.

“God, it’s like a psychedelic rave down there,” the young blonde girl gasps while she looks down at the walkers below them. Thunder rings out overhead. It looks like a storm system is moving in. Dean can tell the sky is already starting to get dark.

“How’s the signal, Meg?” Ellen asks as she and Dean rejoin the group.

“Like Novak’s brain,” Meg replies wittily. “Not all there.” Lucifer flips her off with the hand that’s not currently handcuffed to the pipe.

“Keep trying,” Ellen says.

“Why bother?” Rufus asks, glaring at Dean. “There’s nothing they can do to help. Not a damn thing.” He walks off to the other end of the roof where Kevin and the young blonde are standing together.

“The rest of our group is camped outside of the city,” Ellen explains to him. “There’s no refugee center. Whoever told you one existed was full of shit.”

Dean sighs. “Then Rufus is right. It’s up to us to figure out a way out of here.”

“Good luck with that,” Lucifer snorts. “The streets aren’t safe around here from what I’ve heard.”

“Shut up, Novak,” Ellen hisses. Dean has to wonder why they brought this guy on a scavenging mission in the first place. He’s obviously not a team player. Maybe they needed someone else who can use a gun.

“The streets aren’t safe,” the curly-haired blonde girl laughs sarcastically. “That’s the understatement of the year.”

“What about under the streets?” Dean asks. “In the sewers.”

“There’s a manhole cover in the street on the west side of the building,” Kevin says.

The rest of the group looks towards Dean as if they’re waiting for him to tell them what to do. He’s not unused to this sort of thing. Being a cop, people tend to look to him as a leader or authority figure. They barely met him though, and he’s just been thrust into this world without any knowledge of how it works. He can’t be a leader right now.

“How do we get down there?” Dean asks.

“I’ve scouted this place out before, but I’ve never gone down into the sewers,” Kevin says. “I mean, who would want to, right?” Everyone exchanges glances and then looks back at Kevin. Since he has the most experience scavenging in this building, it would make the most sense for him to be the one going down into the sewer.

“Great,” Kevin sighs, realizing what the others are thinking.

“We’ll be right behind you,” the blonde girl whose name Dean still doesn’t know says.

“No, you won’t,” Kevin insists.

“Do you think I can’t?” She asks angrily.

“No, that wasn’t what I meant…” Kevin trails off.

“Just say it,” Dean says, stepping in. They need to get back on track here.

“Usually when I go on scavenging missions, I go by myself,” Kevin explains. “Then the first time I bring a group, it all goes to shit… no offense. If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it my way.” The rest of them nod in agreement. “It’s cramped down there. If I run into something and have to get out quickly, it would suck if I had everyone slowing me down and getting me killed. I’ll take one person with me.” Dean steps forward assuming he’d be the obvious choice since he’s the most well-trained in combat. Kevin puts his hand on his chest to stop him. “Not you. I’ve seen you shoot. I’d feel better if you were watching the doors and covering our ass if those walkers get inside.” Dean nods. Kevin points towards Ellen and the blonde. “You two go with him since you have the other gun. Rufus will be my wing-man.”

Everyone is quiet for a moment until they realize Kevin is done. Dean pats the kid on the back. “Alright, everyone knows their jobs. Let’s get moving.”  
  


Kevin and Rufus head down to the alley to go into the sewers. Dean, Ellen, and the blonde girl head back into the store to keep an eye on the walkers outside of the glass doors, and Meg stays up on the roof with Lucifer to keep trying to contact the rest of their group.

Back in the clothing store, Dean can see that the walkers are pounding against the glass. There are tiny crack marks starting to form. It’s only a matter of time before they break through, and then there will only be one glass door between them and the dead. Ellen raises her gun towards the door to stand guard while Dean walks further into the store. He doesn’t realize the younger woman followed him until she speaks up from beside him.

“I’m sorry Meg put a gun on you earlier,” she says quietly.

“People do things they wouldn’t normally do when they’re scared,” Dean says to show he’s not holding a grudge against any of them. He understands now that he’s the reason they got into this predicament.

“Not that it wasn’t justified,” she says with a wink. “You did get us into this, after all.” She’s smiling to show she’s not angry. Cute, and she has a sense of humor. He should really figure out her name.

“I’m Dean,” he says with a grin.

“Jessica,” she replies with a smile.

“Well, Jessica,” he starts. “If I get us out of here safely would that make up for it?”  
  


“No,” Ellen answers for her from across the store. “But it would be a good start.” Dean chuckles and moves over to join her in guarding the door.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Meg leans up on the side of the building where the stairs open up to the roof. She’s sitting in what tiny sliver of shade there is, because it’s hot out here today. The dog the cop brought with him is sitting under the shade as well. Lucifer is whistling obnoxiously from where he’s handcuffed to the pipe. He’s in the direct sunlight, so he’s probably starting to get pretty toasty warm by now.

“Can anybody hear me?” Meg asks into the walkie-talkie for what feels like the thousandth time. “I’m hoping to hear somebody else’s voice because I’m getting sick and tired of hearing mine.”

“That makes two of us,” Lucifer says saucily. “Why don’t you stop that? You’re giving me a headache.”

“I’m trying to get us rescued here,” Meg says angrily. “What have you done today besides put members of our own group in danger?”

“Even if you could get in touch with the others, they aren’t going to come rescue us,” Lucifer sighs. “It’d be a suicide mission.”

“Well, I’m not going to just lay down to die,” Meg lets her head thump back against the cool concrete of the wall.

“Again, why don’t you get me out of these handcuffs, and we can have some fun before the lights go out?”

“Gross.” Meg mimes throwing up.

“Figured you’d be a dyke,” Lucifer laughs. Meg is about to correct him that she’s bisexual, but decides it isn’t worth explaining herself to the low-life. How Lucifer can be so different from his brothers remains a mystery to her. She finds herself wishing for the hundredth time that they’d brought one of the other Novaks with them on this mission instead.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

The zombies continue to throw their bodies against the doors to the store, and Dean walks over to join Jessica where she’s looking at one of the male mannequins. The mannequin is wearing a blue flannel shirt. Dean wonders why it’s caught her interest.

“What is it?” He asks.

“Oh,” she breathes. “It’s not for me, but I know someone who might like it.”

“Why don’t you take it, then?” Dean asks, confused.

Jessica looks sheepishly at him. “Wouldn’t that be considered stealing?” She asks. “I mean, you are a cop.”

“Was,” Dean corrects her with a laugh. “Besides, I don’t think those rules apply anymore.”

She pulls the flannel off of the mannequin, checking the size. “There’s someone I might want to give this to,” she says quietly. “He always wears plaid like this.”

“Is he your boyfriend?” Dean asks with a smirk.

Jessica blushes. “Not yet, but maybe someday. Assuming we ever make it out of here, that is.” She ties the flannel around her waist so she can still have both of her hands free in case they need to fight.

“I’m going to do what I can to get us out of here, Jessica,” he says seriously. Before she has a chance to respond, they hear the sound of glass shattering from the front of the store.

“They’re through the first set of doors,” Ellen yells, pulling back to where they’re standing. Rufus and Kevin run up behind them as well. They must’ve stopped searching in the sewers.

“What did you guys find?” Dean asks.

“Nothing,” Kevin sighs. “It’s a dead end.”

“We need to find a way out,” Ellen says. “And soon. Those doors won’t last much longer.” They all walk back up the five flights of stairs to get to the roof. Miracle greets Dean when he steps out onto the roof with a small bark. He gives the dog a scratch between the ears before heading to the edge of the roof where everyone else is looking down below. Thunder continues to ring out every once in a while. He doesn’t see any lightning, but it is cloudy. There’s probably a storm headed their way soon.

Rufus passes Dean a pair of binoculars so he can look around and try to come up with an exit strategy. “Show us what you’ve got, Chief Wiggum,” Rufus says, and Dean rolls his eyes at the Simpsons reference. Dean looks around at the surrounding area to see if there’s anything that they could use as a way out of here. The other roofs are much lower than this one, so they’re impossible to get to. There are walkers roaming all of the streets, so going out the front entrance out isn’t an option.

“Yahtzee!” Dean says, pointing towards a construction site a couple of blocks away. The area is fenced off, keeping the walkers out, and there are moving trucks that would be able to fit all of them inside. “Look at that construction site,” he says, handing the binoculars to Ellen. “Work sites like that always keep the vehicle keys on hand so we should be able to take one of those trucks assuming it’s gassed up.”

“You’ll never make it past the walkers,” Ellen says, putting down the binoculars with a sigh.

Dean turns to Kevin. “You got me out of that tank.”

Kevin shakes his head. “No way! They were distracted then.”

“Can we distract them again?” Dean asks.

“Now, there’s an idea!” Lucifer mocks from the other side of the roof.

“Give it a rest, Novak,” Meg snarls.

“They’re attracted by noise, right?” Dean asks, ignoring Lucifer’s comment.

“Yeah, they’re like dogs,” Jessica says. Miracle tilts his head to the side. “Not you,” she jokes, leaning down to pet him.

“What else?” Dean asks.

“Aside from hearing you?” Rufus asks. “They see you, they smell you, they catch you, and then they eat you. It’s pretty simple.”

“They can tell us by smell?” Dean asks, surprised.

“Can’t you?” Kevin responds. “They smell dead. We don’t.”

That’s the answer. They have to find a way to disguise their smell to make themselves smell dead. If Sam or Benny were here, they’d say this was a crazy plan, but they’re not here, and Dean has no other option. They need to find a way to get to those trucks, and this might just be crazy enough to work. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, Dean is gonna meet Cas in a couple chapters :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got into the graduate program I applied to! I'm so excited!! I start on Monday, so it'll be interesting to see how much time I'll have to write once I start having to study more. I'm trying to stay a couple chapters ahead so I won't have to go long periods of time between uploading.

It takes them about thirty minutes to scrounge up the supplies they’re going to need. They go back down to the store and grab long trench coats that should cover most of their bodies. Rufus manages to find some rubber gloves that go all the way up to the elbow. Once they have what they need, Dean leads them back to the door that opens up onto the alley he and Kevin initially came in through.

“We should call up Guinness World Records, because this might be the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” Kevin says when Dean hands him a trench coat to put on.

“He’s right,” Ellen says. “Stop and think this through for a minute.”

“We don’t have a minute.” Dean motions behind them towards the second door that’s starting to crack open. “They’ve already broken through the first set of doors. Do you want to stick around and see what happens when they get through the second one?”

Ellen and Meg sigh and hold their baseball bats at the ready in case any other walkers manage to get into the alleyway while Dean, Kevin, and Rufus drag one of the ones they’d killed earlier into the building and close the door behind them. Now that they’re back inside, Dean smashes open the glass case above the fire alarm where there’s a fireman’s axe. He grabs it and brings it back to where the rest of the group is standing around the body.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Jessica says, covering her mouth with her hands.

“You might want to join Meg guarding the door if you don’t want to see this,” Dean says sympathetically. He’s not exactly looking forward to this either, but it’s the only plan he can think of to keep them alive. Jessica apologizes and runs to join Meg. Dean looks around at the rest of the group, silently asking if any of the rest of them need to leave too. They all shake their heads. He steels himself, and then brings the axe down on the dead walker, splitting open its belly. Everyone groans at the sound it makes and then again as the smell of decaying flesh hits them. Dean breathes through his nose and keeps bringing the axe down again and again until the body is almost unrecognizable.

“I think I’m going to puke,” Kevin moans, leaning over with his hands on his knees.

“Come on, let’s get this over with,” Dean says. He grabs a handful of the mushy flesh and starts rubbing it all over the trench coat he’s wearing. “Make sure it doesn’t touch your skin.” Rufus and Ellen grab handfuls and start rubbing them on him and Kevin. They’ve decided that the two of them should be the ones to do this. Kevin, since he’s the one who’s done the most scouting in the city, and Dean, since it’s his plan. After they’ve rubbed a good amount of filth on themselves, Dean asks, “Do we smell like them?”

“Oh yeah,” Ellen responds, holding her nose closed.

“Somebody better make sure they grab an extra trench coat for Novak before we leave,” Meg yells from the other side of the room. Rufus snorts out a laugh.

“The guy on the roof?” Dean asks, confused. He can’t picture that asshole wanting to wear one of these ugly tan trench coats.

“No, he has brothers,” Meg explains when the rest of them walk over to where she and Jessica had been standing away from the body.

“Less obnoxious brothers,” Jessica says under her breath.

“Okay, here we go,” Dean says to get them back on track. “If we make it back, you guys need to be ready.” He pauses. “And make sure you don’t leave my dog behind.” The plan is crazy, but if it somehow works, he needs them to be ready to go when he comes back with the truck.

“What should we do about Luci?” Meg asks.

Dean pulls the key to the handcuffs out of his pocket and hands it over to Meg. He looks down at himself and can still see the trench coat through some of the patches of blood and guts. Kevin’s trench coat looks the same. “Give me back the axe,” he groans. “We need more guts.”

“Oh god,” Jessica runs back to the other side of the room as Dean brings the axe down again.

When they’re finally ready to go, Dean opens the door to the alley slowly. He and Kevin shuffle out onto the street. They’ve both strung intestines around their necks to add to the smell. If Dean had eaten any food recently, it definitely would’ve come up by now. Poor Kevin already chucked up his breakfast before they left the building.

Dean holds the axe he’d used to chop up the body with, and Kevin holds a tire iron they found in the alley earlier. They don’t want to use their guns unless it’s absolutely necessary. The goal here is to blend in until they can get to the construction site where the truck they need is parked.

They try to stagger and stumble while they walk so they can fit in with the rest of the walkers roaming along the street. They reach the edge of the alleyway, and it’s time for the big test. The first walker they pass leans in to smell Kevin, but after taking a sniff, it moves away. Dean exhales in relief. Their plan is working. Now all they have to do is walk three blocks to get to the construction site.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Once Kevin and Dean are out of sight, the rest of the group runs back up the flights of stairs to the roof. Lucifer twists around to try and see what’s happening when he hears the door open. Everyone immediately runs to the side of the roof so they can try and watch Dean and Kevin down on the street.

“Come on, guys,” Lucifer whines. “Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on!”

Everybody ignores him. “Meg, try one more time to get in contact with them,” Rufus orders. Meg pulls out the walkie-talkie and starts fiddling with the dials to try and get a signal.

“Base camp, this is Meg. Do you copy?” There’s nothing but static on the other side of the line.

“There!” Jessica shouts. “I see them!” She points down towards the ground where Dean and Kevin are slowly ambling their way towards the construction truck. More thunder rumbles, and this time it sounds closer.

“That asshole is down on the street with my handcuff keys?!” Lucifer screeches. Meg smirks at him while she pulls the key out of her pocket and dangles it in front of him. His blue eyes narrow. She can’t stand the guy, but she has no intention of leaving him behind. She just wants to lord the power over him for a little while longer.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Sam looks up at the clouds rolling in as another loud clap of thunder rings out. He’s standing next to the R.V. while Bobby and Ash work under the hood. Sam is no good with cars, but he has nothing better to do so he figures he might as well try to learn something. Dean always tried to get him interested in the mechanics of the Impala’s engine, but he never listened. In hindsight, he wishes he had listened. The Impala still runs well enough, but it’s definitely in need of one of Dean’s tune-ups.

“This hose isn’t going to last much longer,” Bobby sighs, wiping the sweat off of his brow with a dirty rag.

“No, it’s not,” Ash agrees.

“What does the hose do?” Sam asks.

“It connects to the radiator here,” Bobby shows him. “It keeps the engine from overheating.” He tinkers for a bit longer. “Where the hell are we going to find a replacement?” Ash just shrugs.

Jo paces back and forth anxiously through the center of camp. “It’s getting late,” she says. “They should’ve come back by now.”

“Worrying won’t make it better,” Bobby sighs. Jo just gives him a look and goes right back to pacing.

Sam watches as Ash and Bobby continue working on the R.V. until he feels a slight tug on his flannel shirt. “Uncle Sam?” Ben asks.

“What’s up, kiddo?” Sam leans over to talk to him.

“Can you show me what you were talking about the other day?” Sam doesn’t know what he means. Ben continues when he doesn’t respond, “With the knots?”

“Oh, yeah,” Sam pats Ben on the back. “Of course.” He looks over towards Lisa to check if that’s alright, but she’s busy talking to Benny about something. It’s probably best to keep the kid distracted from whatever is going on over there. Before he has the chance to start showing Ben how to tie different knots for fishing, a call comes in over the radio.

Everyone close to the radio rushes towards it, but Bobby gets there first since the radio is on top of the R.V. “Hello?” He answers.

“Base camp, this is Meg. Can you hear me?”

“Reception is bad, but we can hear you,” Bobby replies. He tries to adjust the knobs on the radio to get a clearer signal, but it’s still fuzzy when Meg speaks again.

“We’re in some deep shit over here!” Her voice sounds frightened. “We’re trapped in a department store.”

Sam runs his hand through his hair. That’s not good. Jo starts trying to climb up to the top of the R.V., but Benny holds her back. It’s hard enough for Bobby to hear without more than one person trying to talk at the same time.

“Did she say they’re trapped?” Lisa asks.

“There are hundreds of walkers all over the place,” Meg says. “We’re surrounded! We need—”

“Meg, repeat that last bit,” Bobby says. “The signal cut out.” There’s nothing but static on the other end. The connection is gone. Everyone looks around at each other, waiting to see who’s going to speak up first.

Sam figures he’ll bite the bullet. “They said they’re trapped in a department store right?”

“That’s what I heard,” Bobby agrees.

Lisa steps forward towards Benny whose shoulders tense up before she even says anything. “Benny…”

“No way,” Benny says resolutely. “We’re not going after them. We’re not risking the rest of the group to save them. Y’all know that.”

“So we’re just going to let them die?!” Jo yells.

Benny steps towards Jo slowly. “Look, Jo, I know this isn’t easy—”

“They volunteered to go,” Jo continues. “To help the rest of us.” Sam feels his chest ache when he thinks about all of the people on the mission. Ellen has become sort of a surrogate mother to him, and Jo is almost like a sister. Rufus is Bobby’s best friend. Kevin is just a teenager. Meg is a bit odd, but she’s tough as nails. Jessica is funny and smart, and if Sam could pull his head out of his ass, he’d ask her out in a heartbeat. Lucifer is the only one he doesn’t give a shit about, but he’s a Novak, so that means he still matters. They can’t just give up on half of their group like that.

“I know,” Benny says quietly. “And they knew the risks, right? Look, Meg said they’re surrounded. That means they’re already dead. We just have to deal with that. There’s nothing we can do.” Sam flinches slightly at Benny’s harsh words. It’s the same thing they’ve been telling themselves about losing Dean. That they just have to deal with it.

Jo’s face hardens even as tears fill her eyes. “My mother is with them, you son of a bitch.” She runs away towards the edge of the camp before anybody can see her cry.

Benny meets his eyes, but all Sam can do is shake his head. He knows being thrust into a leadership position of a band of survivors during a zombie apocalypse can’t be the easiest gig, but sometimes it’s like Benny has no idea what he’s saying. At least provide the group a bit of hope or something! Sam is tired of being the guy who has to go in afterwards and patch things over.

“Jo, wait up,” he calls, running after her.

“Leave me alone, Sam,” she sighs.

“Listen to me for a second,” he says, holding his hands up. She doesn’t say anything. She just wipes a few tears off of her cheeks and raises her eyebrows to show she’s waiting. Shit, now he has to think of something to say. He was expecting her to keep arguing with him. “Just because we can’t do anything, doesn’t mean we stop hoping. Hope is the only thing we have left, Jo. If we lose that, what is there to hold onto?”

She puts her hand on his shoulder. “Are you talking about your brother?” She asks quietly. Sam hadn’t realized he was, but he guesses it’s true. Everything seems to come back around to Dean. He nods, and Jo smiles sympathetically. “I’m sorry I never got the chance to meet him. He sounds like a great guy.”

Sam smiles, and a tear rolls down his cheek. “He was the best.”

“Do you want to just sit here for a while?” Jo asks. “Waiting together has to be better than waiting alone, right?” Sam sits down next to her at the edge of their camp. They’re up on the top of a hill looking over a quarry with a small lake at the bottom. It’s not a lot of elevation, but it’s about as much elevation as there is in Kansas. It gives them a bit of a better vantage point to watch the surrounding areas and make sure nothing sneaks up on them.

The two of them sit together without speaking while they watch the thunderstorm clouds roll in across the sky. The last time it rained hard, Sam’s tent sprung a leak, and he barely got any sleep. He has a feeling he’s in for another sleepless night tonight.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean and Kevin are about halfway to the construction trucks when the rain finally starts coming down. It’s been thundering all afternoon, but Dean didn’t think they’d actually get caught in the rain like this. As they start getting pelted with drops, an awful realization hits him. The rain could wash away the smell of guts on them. They still have a fair distance left to go. If the walkers start attacking them now, things are going to get ugly.

“It’s going to work,” Kevin whispers. “I can’t believe it.”

“Shut up,” Dean hisses at him. The rain starts coming down harder now. It’s definitely more than a cloud burst that will pass in minutes. This is a storm that’s been brewing for hours now, and it’s not going to stop any time soon.

“Shit,” Kevin grits through his teeth. “Do you think the smell is washing off?”

That’s exactly what Dean is worried about. “No, we’re fine,” he replies even though he’s not so sure. It feels like the walkers are paying more attention to them now than they were before. They’re not attacking them yet, but they definitely seem to be sniffing them a bit. They are so close to the construction fence now. It’s probably only fifty yards or so. They can make it. A walker behind them starts to growl. “Or maybe not,” Dean says. “Run!”

The walker charges him, and Dean puts his axe through the zombie’s head. Kevin starts taking off as fast as he can towards the fence. Dean watches as he whacks two walkers in the head with his tire iron. Dean follows behind as quickly as he can. They’re so close to the gate now! When they get to it, Dean throws his axe over and climbs up the chain-link fence quickly. He sees Kevin do the same out of his peripheral vision. The rest of the walkers crash into the gate seconds later. Dean knows it isn’t going to hold for long since it looks pretty flimsy. They need to move quickly.

“Find the key!” Dean yells. “It should be in a lock box on the side of that shed.” He points Kevin in the right direction. He’s not sure if that’s where the key is, but it’s his best guess.

Dean pulls the nasty trench coat off of himself because they won’t need those anymore. He sees Kevin break open the lock box with the tire iron. There are lots of keys inside, but Kevin has to find the right one. Dean looks back towards the fence they climbed over and sees the first walker make its way up to the top of it. He shoots it in the head before it has a chance to climb any further.

“Dean, I got it!” Kevin yells, tossing him the key. Dean catches it and runs to the truck. Thankfully it starts immediately when he twists the key, and it seems to be full of gas. A walker makes it over the fence and starts rushing them. Kevin is barely able to get into the truck and close the door before it starts banging on the side of the truck. “Go go go!” Kevin yells. Dean smashes his foot down on the gas pedal, and the tires squeal on the wet pavement, but they start moving.

The walkers finally push the gate over and start running towards them. Dean knows they’re going to need to take a circuitous route to get back to the department store. They need to figure out some way to draw the walkers off so he can pick up the others.

“Oh my god,” Kevin repeats over and over again. Dean thinks the poor kid must be in shock or something.

“Snap out of it!” Dean yells. “We’re almost out of here, but we need to figure out a way to draw them away from the building. You remember the roll-up doors at the back of the building? That’s the area I need cleared. Do you understand?”

“What? How?”

“Get your friends on the radio,” Dean orders. “Tell them to get down there and be ready for me.”

“How are we going to draw the walkers away?!” Kevin asks frantically. “I missed that part.”

“Noise,” Dean says simply. He stops the truck by a flashy red Ferrari. Thankfully there are no walkers in this spot, so he’s able to get out of the truck and smash the Ferrari window open with Kevin’s tire iron. Once he smashes the window, the car alarm starts blaring obnoxiously. This is sure to get those walkers distracted. “Drive it around to keep them away while I pick up the others,” he tells Kevin. “Once we’re clear, we’ll meet back up at your base camp.” Kevin nods in understanding, and Dean is glad he seems to be focused again.

“Got it!” Kevin says. He pulls out the walkie talkie quickly to call the others.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

The group on the roof watches as the construction truck speeds off away from where they’re trapped in the building. It’s still pouring rain, so they’re all soaked by this point.

“Wait, are they leaving us?” Meg asks, as they watch the truck speed off out of sight. Static starts up on her walkie-talkie, so she turns the dial until she can hear Kevin’s voice clearly.

“Meg?” He asks.

“What are we doing?” She asks frantically.

“Dean is going to drive the truck to the loading dock where those roll-up doors are,” Kevin says quickly. “Get everyone down there and be ready.”

Meg turns off the walkie-talkie. “Grab everything and go!” She yells. The rest of the group grabs all of the supplies they’d collected and start running for the door.

“Wait, wait,” Lucifer shouts. “You can’t leave me here!”

Meg stops by the door and looks back towards him. “Meg, we need to leave NOW!” Ellen yells from the stairwell.

“Don’t leave me!” Lucifer pleads. “You can’t leave me like this!”

Meg groans and runs back across the roof to undo Lucifer’s handcuffs. Right when she’s about to get to him, she trips and falls down. She knocks over the bag of tools Bobby had lent them for the scavenging trip, and then the key falls out of her hand, bounces a few times, and lands in the gutter on the side of the roof. The gutter that’s currently overflowing with rainwater from the storm. When she looks over the edge of the roof, she can see that the tiny key is gone. Shit.

“I dropped it,” she says quietly.

“You did that on purpose!”

“I’m sorry, man,” she starts backing away towards the door. “I need to go.”

“Don’t leave me, Meg,” Lucifer is begging now. She gives him one last apologetic look and then steps into the stairwell, closing the door behind her. She can’t stand the guy, but she didn’t want to be responsible for his death either. She knows that in a few minutes, the walkers will make it up this staircase. If she bars the door and locks it, they won’t be able to get to him. Maybe then they can take another trip out here to try and rescue him. It’s worth a shot anyways.

She runs down the stairs as fast as she can, yelling at the others not to leave her behind. When she passes the main room of the store, she can see that the walkers have made it through the second glass door. Just as she gets to the spot the others are waiting, she hears Dean honk the truck horn to signal that they need to move. They pull open the roll-up doors and start loading all of the supplies they’d gathered into the trunk. Dean’s dog jumps into the truck at his command. Meg looks further down the street and sees a red Ferrari with its horn blaring driving around in circles. She assumes that’s the diversion they set up so they’d be able to get away.

Rufus grabs her hand to help her up and then they speed away back in the direction of base camp. It takes a couple minutes for everyone to catch their breaths, but then Meg can tell they’re all wondering where Lucifer is. They look at her questioningly until she can’t take the weight of their stares anymore.

“I dropped the damn key. Are you satisfied?” The rest of the group exchanges looks but nobody says anything. She knows none of them can stand Lucifer, but even though he’s a dick, he’s still part of their group. She closes her eyes and leans her head back against the wall of the truck, trying her best to ignore the guilt that’s clawing its way through her chest.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Dean doesn’t react when he hears the news the Lucifer got left behind. He keeps driving the direction Rufus told him to and doesn’t say anything. He does feel a bit guilty since he’s the one who hand-cuffed Lucifer to the pipe in the first place, but then he rationalizes to himself that there was nothing else he could do. They were in a tight spot, and Lucifer would’ve gotten them all killed.

“Best not to dwell on it,” Rufus says from the passenger seat, mirroring his thoughts. The rest of the group is sitting on the floor of the truck with the duffel bags of supplies they’d gathered. “Nobody is going to be sad when we get back to camp without him,” Rufus continues. “Except maybe his brothers.”

“Brothers?” Dean asks.

“Gabriel and Castiel Novak,” Rufus explains. “At one point the Novak clan made up a huge portion of our group, but…” he pauses. “We lost some people along the way.”

Before Dean can respond to that, he hears the blaring sound of the Ferrari they’d broken into come up from behind them. Kevin drives along the side of the moving truck for a moment and then pulls out in front of them. When he passes them, he waves his hand out the window and has a huge grin on his face.

“At least someone’s enjoying themselves,” Rufus says with a snort. They drive past the outskirts of the city and towards a less populated area. Ellen had explained to him earlier that they’d set up camp outside the city, but close enough that they could still scavenge for supplies. After thirty more minutes of driving, Rufus tells him to take the exit leading towards the old quarry. The sun is beginning to head for the horizon, but they should still have a couple hours left of daylight before it gets dark. They’ll make it in plenty of time.

“Here we are,” Ellen says as they pull up a gravel road towards what looks like a miniature tent city. There are a few cars parked along the gravel road as well as an old Winnebago R.V. Off to the side of the vehicles are a half dozen or so tents set up. It looks like they’ve established quite the little band of survivors here.

“Home, crappy home,” Meg sighs as she gets up and opens the back of the truck to start unloading everything.

“Come meet everyone!” Jessica puts her hand on his arm encouragingly, and nervous butterflies start flapping around behind his ribcage. Dean has never thought of himself as being very social, and the idea of meeting a whole group of people at once is pretty terrifying. He sighs as the rest of the group leaves the truck. He can’t just stay in here for the rest of the night. Time to get this over with. He steels himself and gets out of the truck to go meet the rest of the camp.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally get to meet Castiel!

The sun is starting to set over the quarry, and Sam is beginning to get nervous. The scavenging group is still not back from their mission to the city. The last they’d heard from them, they were trapped in a department store and surrounded by walkers. Sam knows the odds here. They’ll most likely never hear from the group again. All of those people, gone.

He sits down on one of the chairs they’ve arranged in a circle around the fire pit. Lisa is in the process of cutting Ben’s hair while Benny sits next to them cleaning his guns. Sam figures he can help Benny with those. He picks up a shotgun and starts disassembling it. Growing up the son of a marine has come in handy since the world ended.

“Why do you have to cut my hair?” Ben whines. It’s been growing out for a few months now. Bobby pointed out the other day that the kid was starting to look like Sam. That’s when Lisa decided it was time for a trim.

“Because you’re starting to look like your uncle,” Lisa says with a laugh.

“Hey,” Sam protests, but he’s grinning. It always makes him happy when they call him Uncle Sam. Especially after losing Dean, it’s nice to feel like he still has a family to belong to.

“If you sit still and let your mom cut your hair, I can teach you how to catch frogs later,” Benny says with a wink.

“Why would we catch frogs?” Ben asks.

“To eat them, of course!”

“Gross,” Lisa groans, and Sam can’t help but agree. They aren’t exactly overflowing with food here, but he doesn’t know if he’s ready to resort to eating frogs.

“No, cher, frog legs are a delicacy where I come from,” Benny argues. “You can’t say nothing against it until you’ve tried my Cajun frog legs recipe.”

“Yuck!” Ben scrunches his face up in disgust.

“No, _yum_ ,” Benny emphasizes. “Just wait until we run out of canned food. Then you’ll be begging me to try them.”

Before any of them have a chance to respond, they hear a beeping noise coming from down the hill. It sounds like some sort of alarm. Sam looks over towards the R.V. where Bobby is. The older man set himself up as lookout by putting a chair on top of the camper. It gives him enough height to be able to see down the road.

“What’s going on, Bobby?” Sam calls.

Bobby stands up facing away from them and looks through his binoculars to try and figure out what the sound is. “I can’t see anything yet.” The alarm starts to grow louder as something quickly approaches their camp.

“Is it them?” Jo asks, standing up. “Are they back?”

Bobby lowers the binoculars. “I’d bet it’s a stolen car,” he says. The alarm grows louder and now Sam can hear the revving of an engine as well. A couple seconds later a flashy red Ferrari pulls into the camp leaving a trail of dust behind it. Kevin steps out of the car with a huge grin on his face while the alarm continues to blare loudly. Jo runs over towards him and starts asking him where the others are and if they’re alright.

“Turn that damn thing off, son!” Bobby yells.

“I don’t know how to make it stop!” Kevin yells back.

Benny and Ash run over towards the car and yell at him to pop the hood. Kevin fumbles around in the car for a moment before he finds the correct button. Once the hood is popped, Ash is able to disconnect whatever was making the noise. Now that the alarm is stopped, it feels extra quiet in the camp.

“Idjit,” Bobby mutters, stepping down from the top of the R.V.

“Is my mom okay?” Jo yells for the fifth time, shaking Kevin.

“Yes, she’s fine!” Kevin says. “They’re all fine… Well, everyone except Lucifer.” Sam sighs in relief. If they had to lose anyone on that mission, he’s glad it was Lucifer. The guy is insufferable.

“Are you crazy driving this thing all the way up here?” Bobby yells. “You could bring every walker within five miles down on top of us.”

Kevin grimaces. “I’m sorry.”

“I think we’re okay,” Sam says delicately. What Kevin did was stupid, but he’s still a teenager.

“You call being an idjit okay?” Bobby asks, sending a glare his direction.

“The sound was bouncing all around these hills,” Sam says. “I don’t think it’d be easy for anything to pin down exactly where we are.”

“I’m sorry,” Kevin says again. “I got an awesome car though.” Before they’re able to fight some more, a big moving truck pulls into the spot behind where Kevin parked the Ferrari.

The first person out of the truck is Ellen. She rushes forward to hug Jo, and they both have tears streaming down their faces. “You scared the shit out of me,” Jo cries as Ellen rubs her back soothingly and apologizes. Meg steps out of the car next and gives everyone a little wave. Rufus steps forward and claps Bobby on the back. Bobby rolls his eyes, but Sam can tell he’s glad his best friend is alright. Jessica runs over towards him, and before Sam can think anything of it, he pulls her into a hug. Thankfully she leans into him instead of pulling away. Maybe he has a shot with her after all.

“You lot are a welcome sight,” Benny says with a grin. “I thought for sure we’d lost you guys.”

“Won’t get rid of us that easily,” Rufus chuckles.

“How’d you get out of there anyways?” Benny asks.

“The new guy helped us,” Kevin says, pointing back towards the truck where a man wearing a police officer’s uniform steps out from the driver’s seat. A fluffy tan dog jumps down after him. _No way._

“Dean?!” Sam yells towards the newcomer, and he looks up immediately. Lisa and Ben also look up at the sound of Dean’s name, and Lisa’s mouth drops open.

Dean takes a couple steps forward and stops. It looks like he’s at a loss for words. That makes two of them. Sam leaves Jessica’s side to go give his brother a big bear hug. “Sammy.” Dean’s voice is thick with tears. Sam never wants to let him go again, but he knows he has to give Ben a chance to reunite with his father.

“Dad?” Ben looks like he’s in shock, but when Dean kneels down and opens his arms up, the kid sprints over towards him and gives him a huge hug. Lisa runs over as well to hug the three of them. Sam looks over at Benny. He seems a bit closed off now, which makes sense. He and Lisa have been shacking up, as Dean would say, since the apocalypse started. He’s probably just as surprised as any of them that Dean is still alive.

The rest of the camp looks on with smiles as the family reunites. They’ve all heard stories about Dean by this point, but nobody knew that they’d ever get the chance to meet him. After Dean lets go of Lisa he walks back over to Sam and gives him another hug. Sam closes his eyes, grateful to have his brother back again.

<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Later that evening Dean sits down next to Lisa at the campfire with the rest of the group. They’d started the fire in the afternoon, so by the time the sun sets it’s down to embers. Sam told him they do that in order to keep the fire out of sight of walkers. They don’t want anything to be attracted to the light.

He’d gotten the chance earlier to meet everyone, but it’s going to take a while to learn everybody’s names. Jo is Ellen’s daughter. Bobby is Rufus’s best friend. Ash is the guy with the outdated mullet. The girl slightly older than Ben is Claire Novak. Her mom is Amelia. There’s an older man who’s been staying to himself. He’s apparently Meg’s father, though the two of them don’t seem particularly close. That’s everyone except for the other Novaks. Benny told him that Gabriel and his brother, whose name Dean can’t remember… something weird with a C, have been on a hunting trip trying to catch some game. The survivors have canned foods, but those are going to run out soon.

When Bobby asks him what it’s been like to wake up to this new world, the only thing Dean can think to say is that it’s been disorienting. “Of course, there’s also fear and confusion, but I think disorienting is the best way to put it,” he says. He leans down to pet Miracle who is laying down on the ground by his feet. Ben was very excited earlier to find out Dean had adopted a dog on his way here.

“Words are tricky that way,” Bobby says, putting down his mug of bourbon. “There are over 170,000 words in the English language, and yet we often find ourselves struggling to pick the right words to explain how we’re feeling.” Dean stares at the older man for a second, wondering what his story is. He looks like a grizzly trucker or conservative hick, but apparently, he’s very intelligent. Goes to show the old saying, ‘can’t judge a book by its cover’ is still accurate.

“It felt like I’d been snatched out of my life and put in another place,” Dean continues. He has his right arm around Lisa next to him and his left holding onto Ben while the kid sits on his lap. “I felt like I was trapped in a coma dream or something.”

Ben turns to look up at him. “Mom said you died,” he says quietly, and Dean feels Lisa flinch next to him. He rubs her shoulder soothingly.

“She had every reason to believe that I had,” Dean says to show that he doesn’t blame her.

“When things started to get bad, the hospital told me that they were going to medevac you and the other patients to Kansas City, but that didn’t happen,” Lisa explains quietly. Most of the rest of the group is sitting around the circle listening to them talk. They have nothing better to do at the moment, anyways.

“I’m not surprised considering what the city looked like,” Dean says. “When I woke up in the hospital, it looked like the place had been overrun.”

“You said it, brother,” Benny speaks up from across the fire. “I barely got them out in time.” He must be talking about Lisa and Ben.

“I can’t say how thankful I am for you, Benny,” Dean says seriously. His best friend really came through for him. He thought it would be a long-shot finding any of his family members, but all of them are here in the same camp. It’s better than he could’ve hoped. “I can’t begin to express…” Dean trails off, getting lost for words again. Benny nods, but looks away. Dean wonders what that’s about. 

“There go those words falling short again,” Bobby chuckles from the right side of Benny.

Dean feels Lisa turn and place a kiss on his hand where it rests on her shoulder. He feels a warmth in his chest that has nothing to do with the small fire crackling in front of them.

A crackling sound comes from another fire at the other end of the camp. The older man, Meg’s father, added another log to his fire. Benny looks up at the sound. “Hey, Azazel, what have we said about the fires at night?”

“It’s cold,” the man, Azazel apparently, replies. Meg is sitting on one side of him, and Amelia Novak and her daughter Claire are sitting on the other side of that fire.

Benny’s face hardens, and Dean sees the expression of his partner who doesn’t take anybody else’s shit. “The temperature doesn’t change the rules does it?” He asks. It looks like Benny has stepped up as the leader of this group. That makes sense. As a member of law enforcement, Benny has more survival training than the average civilian. He knows how to handle weapons, and he’s looked at as an authority figure. It’s the same reason the group in Kansas City started looking to Dean for orders. Benny continues, “We keep our fires low at night so we can’t be seen from a distance.”

“I said it’s cold,” Azazel stands his ground. “Why don’t you stop bossing everyone around for a second?” Benny stands up and moves towards the other fire. The rest of the camp sits quietly, waiting to see what he does.

“Azazel,” Benny says, voice low. “Do you really want to have this argument right now?”

The men stare at each other for a moment, before Azazel turns towards Meg. “Fine, pull the damn thing out.” Meg quickly pulls out the log since it’s only started to catch fire. She puts it onto the grass to the side of the fire, and Benny helps her put out the sparks before they can catch. Azazel doesn’t move to help once. Dean can tell he’s another problem member of the group. He figures Benny is too nice to be able to kick people to the curb, but having people like Azazel and Lucifer around is dangerous to everybody else.

Benny squats down so he’s eye-level with Claire who is sitting with her mom next to Meg and Azazel. “How are you folks doing tonight?” He asks.

“We’re fine, thank you,” Amelia responds. Claire doesn’t say anything.

“Y’all have a good night,” Benny says, standing up again. Then he turns towards Azazel. “Thanks for the cooperation,” he says sarcastically before rejoining the others at the main fire.

When he sits back down at the fire, Rufus asks the group, “Have you given any thought to what we’re going to say when the Novaks come back?”

Bobby nods, “They won’t be happy to hear Lucifer was left behind.”

Meg speaks up from her fire. “I’ll tell them it was my fault,” she says. “I’m the one who dropped the key.”

Dean can’t let her take the fall for the whole thing. “And I’m the one who hand-cuffed him in the first place,” he says. He wants this group to accept him, and in order for that to happen he has to take responsibility for his actions.

“It isn’t a competition,” Kevin says. He’s been quiet all evening until now. “I think Meg should be the one to say it. Castiel has a soft spot for her. Better to come from someone they know instead of the newcomer,” he turns to Dean, “No offence.”

“None taken,” Dean replies.

“We could lie,” Jessica suggests from her spot next to Sam. Suddenly, it all falls into place. She’d picked out a flannel shirt for someone she has a crush on. Sam wears flannel shirts. Plus, with the way Sam has his arm around her, it looks like her crush is reciprocated.

“Or we could tell the truth,” Ellen says. “Lucifer was a liability. If we hadn’t chained him to that pipe, we probably wouldn’t have gotten out of there.” She looks towards Lisa. “Your boyfriend did what had to be done,” she says firmly. “It’s nobody’s fault but his own that he got left behind.”

Bobby snorts, “Is that what we’re going to tell the Novaks? I doubt they’re going to see reason if we tell them like that. He’s their brother.”

“I hate to admit it, but Bobby’s right,” Rufus says. “We’re going to have our hands full when they get back from their hunting trip.”

Meg gets up and walks over to their fire. Azazel doesn’t make any move to follow her. “I was scared, so I ran,” Meg explains, ashamed.

“We were all scared, and we all ran,” Ellen says, trying to assuage some of Meg’s guilt.

“No, you don’t get it,” Meg continues. “I had enough time to chain up the door. The staircase is narrow, so there’s no way the walkers would be able to push through. That means Lucifer is still stuck up there, chained to the roof.” She backs away to the other fire. “That’s on us,” she says before sitting down again.

Everyone around the main fire exchanges glances. It has to be hot up on that roof in the sun all day. Lucifer is going to die slowly without food or water instead of quickly to the walkers. As that revelation sinks in, the conversation grows stagnant. People start saying their goodnights and heading off to the various tents around the camp.

“Are you ready to turn in?” Lisa asks him quietly, and he nods. He’s exhausted. He hasn’t gotten much sleep at all since waking up in that hospital. Ben is already falling asleep when Dean carries him into their tent. He gently lays him down on the sleeping cot Lisa points him to. The cot is on one side of the tent, and there’s an air mattress big enough for Lisa and him to share on the other side. Dean also notices the duffel bags and suitcases from their house are lining the edge of the tent. He’s glad they had time to at least pack a little bit before leaving. He assembles a makeshift bed for Miracle out of one of the blankets lying on top of a suitcase, and Lisa smiles. Dean’s glad everyone seems on board with having a dog here, because even though it’s only been a couple days, he doesn’t think he’d able to part with him.

“Where does Sam sleep?” He asks after getting ready for bed.

“He’s been sharing a tent with Rufus, but he might move in with Jessica soon,” she replies with a smirk. “Bobby has the R.V. with Kevin and Ash. The Harvelles share a tent. Meg is with Azazel, and then the Novaks have the rest of the tents.” Dean nods. This is quite the little commune they have going here.

Ben stirs slightly, so Dean goes over to tell him goodnight. “I love you, Dad,” Ben says quietly.

“I love you too, kiddo,” Dean replies, his throat choked up a bit. He goes back to the other side of the tent where Lisa is changing out of her day clothes and into one of his old t-shirts. She must be using it as a sleep shirt.

“It smelled like you,” she explains with a blush. “At least it used to.”

Dean moves behind her so he can pull her into his chest. “I’m so glad I found you both,” he says with a sigh, kissing her head. “I knew I would.”

She turns around to look at him with a smirk on her face. “You’re getting a little cocky now, Mister.”

“No, I knew I would find you,” Dean says adamantly. “When I went to the house and saw that it was empty and you’d packed things up before leaving—"

“I’m so sorry,” Lisa interrupts, but he silences her with a quick kiss.

“No, I knew you were alive and that I’d find you eventually.”

“How?” She asks.

“You took all of our pictures,” he chuckles quietly, and she smiles, reaching behind him to pull one of their photo albums out of a bag.

They look at the photographs together in silence for a bit before Lisa’s face saddens again. “Dean, I thought I was never going to see you again,” she admits quietly. “I’m so sorry for everything. When you were in the hospital, I felt terrible that our last conversation had been a fight. We had so many stupid fights about nothing. Once you were in that coma, I saw how silly we’d both been.”

Dean leans down to kiss her gently. “Maybe we have a second chance,” he says, and he means it. Before he was shot, things did not look good for them. They were trying to make it work for Ben’s sake, but it was hard. In some ways, this zombie apocalypse could end up bringing them back together. “Lots of people didn’t get one.”

Lisa holds eye contact with him while she reaches for the locket she keeps on her neck. Dean bought it for her last year when they got back together. When she pulls the locket out of her shirt, he sees that she’s also wearing the amulet Sam gave him for Christmas one year when they were kids. She pulls the amulet off of her neck. “Sam let me have this,” she says quietly. Dean knows what it must’ve meant for Sam to let her keep that. He obviously cares about Lisa and Ben a lot. “Do you want it back?”

“Of course,” he says with a smile. “I’d been wondering where that went.” He puts the amulet back on his neck and tucks it under his shirt. Then he leans down to kiss Lisa deeply before lying back down on the air mattress and pulling her close to him.

He wakes up slowly the next morning to an empty tent. He notices that his uniform is missing, but a change of clothes has been set out for him. He gets dressed and sticks his head outside the tent. It’s cool out this morning, but not too cold to where he feels uncomfortable in his AC/DC t-shirt. The camp seems to already be bustling with movement. Everyone is doing whatever jobs they’ve been assigned, but they all greet him with smiles as he walks by.

When he gets close to the R.V. he sees Amelia Novak ironing his uniform. “Good morning,” she says when he approaches her. “They’re still a bit damp, but they should dry quickly when the sun is fully up.”

“You washed my clothes?” He asks in shock. He’s surprised at how nice and accepting everyone has been of him so far.

“As best as I could,” she replies with a smile. “Washing down at the lake is a lot harder than sticking them in the washing machine.”

“Thank you,” Dean says sincerely. She just nods with a smile. He walks towards the sound of metal clanging and sees Bobby, Ash, and Benny taking apart the red Ferrari Kevin had driven back to camp. The teenager is watching the scene morosely.

“They’re like hyenas,” Kevin sighs when Dean approaches him. “They’re not going to stop until they pick her clean.”

“Our generators need every drop of fuel they can get,” Bobby explains. “We don’t have any power without it.” He drags a container full of gasoline over towards the R.V. “Sorry, Kevin,” he adds on as an after-thought.

“I thought I’d get to drive it at least a couple more days,” Kevin says sadly. He had probably been wanting to drive a sports car his whole life.

Dean claps Kevin on the back. “Maybe we’ll get to steal another one sometime,” he chuckles.

Sam motions for him to come over so he jogs over to join him. “Thought you’d want these back,” Sam holds up a pair of car keys.

“No way!” Dean breathes excitedly.

“Don’t get too excited,” Sam says, tossing him the keys. “She’s in desperate need of a tune-up, and she’s currently out of gas, but she’s still standing.” Dean walks over to the Impala and gently runs his hand along it.

Dean doesn’t notice that his eyes have filled up with tears until his brother is laughing at him. “Shut up,” he says without any heat behind it. “Thanks for getting her,” he finishes once he’s in control of his emotions. “And for everything else.”

Sam must know he’s talking about how he and Benny took care of Lisa and Ben while he was gone. “Your family is my family, man,” Sam says.

“Bitch,” Dean says to lighten the mood. This is getting dangerously close to chick-flick territory.

“Jerk,” Sam laughs in response. 

Dean leaves him to go say good morning to Lisa. She’s standing with Ellen and Jo as the three of them fold up the clothes that have already been washed and dried. “Good morning, Officer Winchester,” Lisa says with a smirk. Ellen and Jo exchange glances with each other.

He knows she’s playing with him because of that embarrassing moment when he admitted he has a bit of a kink about being called ‘Officer Winchester.’ Sam would say it’s because he watches too much porn. To which he’d reply, ‘Come on, everybody has a kink for authority figures, right?’

“Did you sleep alright?” Lisa asks while she folds a pair of pants.

“Better than in a long time,” he replies with a smile, and it’s the truth. Knowing that his family is safe and sound is the most natural sleeping aid around.

She smiles. “I didn’t wake you because I figured you could use a couple extra hours.” She must notice that his face has turned serious. Unfortunately for Dean, after all the time they’ve spent together, Lisa is able to read him like a book. “God, what?” Dean doesn’t say anything. “That look always means trouble, just spit it out.”

“I’ve been thinking about Lucifer,” Dean says quietly so Ellen and Jo can’t overhear. The two of them must be able to tell that this is private, because they move to fold clothes somewhere else.

Lisa stares at him for a second to figure out if he’s serious. She must be able to see that he is, because she sighs and says, “Don’t do this.”

He’s interrupted from having to respond by the sound of tires coming up the dirt road towards camp. Benny pulls up in a Jeep. He parks it and hops down. “Got water,” he announces, and everyone runs forward to grab their containers filled with water from the lake down at the bottom of the quarry. “Please, folks,” Benny urges. “Remember to boil first before drinking. I don’t want another latrine incident.”

“Latrine incident?” Dean asks as he follows Lisa to grab their water.

“Brother, you do not want to know,” Benny says with a laugh.

After Dean lugs their water container back to their tent, Lisa grabs his arm. “Are you serious about this?” She asks.

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to just live with this,” Dean replies. “It’s my fault, Lis.”

She sighs. “Are you asking me or telling me?”

He smiles. “Asking, of course.”

“You realize this is crazy, right?” Lisa pauses for a second. “You have a son now, Dean. A responsibility to—"

“Maybe I wouldn’t still be trying to figure out this whole father thing if I’d had more than a year to warm up to the idea,” Dean interrupts angrily. Why is she allowed to get up on a high horse about this when she’s the one who kept Ben out of his life for eight years?

Lisa sighs, “Are we really still fighting about that? I thought we’d moved past it.”

“We’re trying to work through it, but we haven’t really dealt with it yet,” Dean says, lowering his voice back to its normal volume. “I love Ben more than anything, and I missed out on a lot—”

Before he’s able to finish that though, he hears a scream from outside of camp. Dean can tell it’s Ben’s voice. “Ben?!” Lisa takes off running towards the woods at the edge of camp in the direction the scream came from. Dean follows quickly behind her with Benny, Bobby, Kevin, and Ash.

“Dean!” Benny shouts, and he turns around. Benny tosses him a fire poker they must’ve picked up from someone’s house, and he catches it.

“Mommy!” Ben shouts, running towards Lisa. She grabs a hold of him and pulls him close.

“I’ve got him, Dean,” she says, signaling that he should follow the others deeper into the woods towards whatever had scared Ben.

When Dean catches up to the rest of the group, he sees everyone huddling around a dead deer. There’s a walker feasting on the carcass, and it’s too distracted to even notice there are people there. Benny moves forward and smashes the walker on the head with the rusted pipe he’s holding. Kevin starts hitting it with his tire iron, and Dean steps forward to use the fire poker. After a few good hits, the thing falls down, and Bobby chops its head off with the huge fireman’s axe he’s carrying.

They all take a moment to catch their breath. For a minute there, Dean had been so happy to be reunited with his family that he’d forgotten they were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Seeing a walker this close to their camp definitely brings him back down to reality.

“They’ve never wandered this far away from Kansas City,” Bobby says in surprise.

“They’re probably running out of food in the city,” Ash guesses. Dean hasn’t spoken to him yet besides to say he likes the mullet. Ash seems to hang out mostly with Ellen, Rufus, and Bobby.

They hear rustling coming from deeper in the forest, and everyone turns around and raises their makeshift weapons in case another walker comes through. Instead of walkers, though, two men step forward through the trees. One of them is short with sandy brown, medium length hair. The other is much taller with dark hair and bright blue eyes. The second man is holding an awesome looking crossbow.

“Dammit!” The darker haired man shouts when he sees the dead walker. “That’s our deer!” He walks over towards it and pulls three arrows out of its carcass. The other man is holding a hunting knife and carrying a string with a bunch of dead squirrels hanging off of it.

“Yuck,” the shorter man says with disgust. “It’s been gnawed all over by this piece of shit.” He kicks the dead walker hard in the ribs, and Kevin groans when they hear the crunch that accompanies the kick.

“We tracked this deer for miles,” the dark-haired man sighs. “Do you think we could cut around the nasty parts and salvage the rest?”

“Do you really want to risk that?” Benny asks him. Dean knows he wouldn’t want to risk it. He has no idea how this disease that turns dead people into zombies works, but he isn’t going to take any chances. The dark-haired man must agree because he just sighs again and wipes off the arrows before putting them back in his quiver.

“That’s a shame,” the shorter man says. “We did catch about a dozen squirrels though, so that’s something.”

A noise comes from the dead walker’s head, and then its eyes open. _What the fuck?_

“Seriously, guys?” The dark-haired man yells, loading an arrow into the crossbow and shooting the walker straight through an eye. “You have to get it in the head to kill it. Haven’t you learned anything?”

Dean turns towards Benny to see how he’s going to respond to this jerk, but he just rolls his eyes and starts heading back towards camp. The two new men follow him, and Dean realizes these must be the other Novaks everyone has told him about. So far, they seem just as pleasant as their brother, Lucifer.

“Luci?” The shorter man shouts when they get back to camp. “I got some squirrels for you, bro.”

“Gabriel, hold on,” Benny says. “I need to talk to you both.”

“Where’s Lucifer?” The dark-haired brother asks.

Benny takes a deep breath, and Dean knows he’s trying to figure out the best way to break the news to the brothers. “There was a problem in Kansas City,” he says. The rest of the camp has stopped whatever they’re doing to eavesdrop.

“Is he dead?” Gabriel asks.

“We’re not sure,” Benny replies.

The blue-eyed brother scoffs. “Either he’s dead or he isn’t.”

“It’s not that simple, Castiel,” Bobby steps forward. _Castiel, Lucifer. Who the hell named these guys?_

Dean knows he needs to come clean. He’s not going to let anyone else take the fall for this. “There’s no good way to say this, so I’m just going to say it,” he starts.

“Dean…” Sam warns from the sidelines where he’s standing with Lisa and Ben.

The Novak brothers turn to look at him, waiting to hear what he has to say. “Who the hell are you?” Castiel asks.

“Dean Winchester,” he replies. The Novaks turn to look towards Sam, Lisa, and Ben briefly, and then look back at Dean. It’s clear most of the camp had heard about him, but they probably all thought he was dead. “Your brother was a danger to our whole group, so I did what needed to be done and handcuffed him to the roof of the department store we were trapped in. He’s still there.”

Meg walks back into the camp holding a pile of firewood. She drops it to the ground when she hears Dean taking the blame for what happened.

“Okay, give me a moment to process this.” Gabriel starts pacing back and forth in obvious anger while Castiel stays eerily still and quiet. “You’re saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof?” He screeches. “And then you left him there?!”

“Yes,” Dean answers simply.

Gabriel looks like he’s fuming. While everyone is focused on Gabriel and what he’s about to say next, Castiel lunges towards Dean with absolutely no warning, pinning him to the ground.

“Nobody dicks with Lucifer but us,” the dark-haired man hisses in Dean’s ear. He tries to break out of the hold Novak has on him, but the guy must’ve had some combat training because he can’t get free. It takes Sam and Benny together to pull Castiel off of him. Once they do, Dean breathes in and out quickly to get his breath back.

Benny holds Castiel back while Sam makes sure Gabriel doesn’t try anything. Rufus was right last night when he said they were going to have their hands full when the brothers got back to camp.

Dean leans down to get up in Castiel’s face. “I’d like to be able to talk about this calmly,” Dean says through his teeth. “Do you think we can do that?” Castiel just glares at him. Gabriel is glaring too, but it’s clear that he’s not going to try and fight them. Out of the two of them, Castiel is obviously the one with the physical strength.

After a few more tense seconds, Castiel finally nods, and Benny releases him. Gabriel helps his brother up, and the two of them wait for Dean to speak again. “What I did wasn’t an impulsive, spur of the moment decision,” Dean says carefully. “Your brother was going to get us all killed if I didn’t do something, so I did.”

“So what?” Gabriel snorts. “Are you the new sheriff in town, bucko?” Dean just rolls his eyes.

“It wasn’t Dean’s fault.” Meg steps forward. “I had the key, and I dropped it.”

“And you couldn’t just pick it up?” Castiel growls.

“It fell into the gutter on the roof,” Meg says, ashamed.

“He likes you,” Gabriel sighs. “How could you do that to him?” Dean can’t quite picture Lucifer having feelings for anyone aside from himself, but Meg blushes slightly.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” she says quietly. “If it makes you feel better, I chained the door up so no walkers could get to him.”

“Just tell us where he is so we can go get him,” Castiel demands.

Lisa steps forward. “Dean will show you where he is,” she says to Dean’s surprise. Earlier this morning she was totally against him going on a rescue mission. “Won’t you, Dean?”

Dean looks over at her to make sure she’s being serious. She just nods and steps back inside the R.V. where Ben is sitting with Claire and her mother. “Alright,” Dean says, clapping his hands together. “Let’s go get your brother.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m working on multiple fics at the moment, so while I’m going to try my best to update frequently, I also want to let myself write when I feel like it. Fanfiction is a hobby for me and something I do in my free time. I always want it to stay fun and not feel like something I have to do. 
> 
> Feel free to leave comments on any of my fics! I love hearing people’s thoughts


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